Maturation 2

September 18th, 2032.

Dinah sighed dramatically, flipping her hair as she collapsed next to on the couch.

“Having trouble with your many guests and or spies and their gifts and messages?” I asked with a knowing eyebrow raise. “Who showed up after you defeated your greatest enemy, and suddenly gained the attention of a hundred and more mythical beasts?”

Dinah’s smoking gaze said it all. “We believe Sundiver’s horde is closer to five hundred individuals. With a total of four breeds between them, with their hunting grounds largely hosted in the patagial islands.”

“So that island of theirs must be a nesting site, a safe place to raise their chicks away from atmospheric predators.” I said with a growing grin.

So much had changed in the past few weeks, the coastal kingdoms were offering tribute and greater incentives. The only one not groveling was Glabrous who had been the main trading partner of Caudalann for generations.

Anagen of course had been a close-held ally despite their disagreements for just as long, and had been there at the scene.

High Corpus was a far greater concern however, they were situated between Pedicles and Xiphus, and they were the largest slave port in Danab. Essentially among the last holdouts of older caste cultures from the north. With slaves at the bottom, serfs a step above that, free people above that and nobility above that.

Those four social classes had collapsed down to two or so, between clanless and clan. It was effectively a tax bracket, clans paid the most taxes, while the families were themselves split into three tax brackets. Foreigners, citizens, and specialists with their own duties and rights.

High Corpus was a city-state, roughly twenty thousand within their own walls, and sixty thousand in the surrounding villages and countryside. It was about a quarter the size of San Diego proper, they were the result of settlement from Katsina, a Titan about six hundred kilometers east of Calafia.

An incomplete Titan, an entire torso and half a pelvis with a population of two million or so. There were eight Katsina settlements spread out across Calafia with seven hundred twenty thousand between them.

That invasion had been five hundred years ago, and High Corpus was the local center of power of the Katsina. Many taifa and tribula had been forced to pay tribute to High Corpus, including Caudalann due to their endless war against Cassiopeia.

Even the ten year gap hadn’t been enough to let them recover due to the devastation to their crops and famines and piracy. But things had changed a lot, their enemy was defeated. They had an army of battle-hardened warriors, with griffins seemingly patrolling their seas, and a knight who had beaten a god.

Not that I deserve the credit, that was a single use ontological weapon.

It was a deeply complex device, an artifact capable of Unmaking a target. That was what had killed Her, it destroyed her in every possible realm, in every possible time and place. It was a weapon of the Darkness, of collapse, a paracausal union of possibilities.

Dinah started poking my cheek. “Celia, are you pondering the secrets of the universe once more? Ignoring my radiance?” There was a bite to her teasing, smoke puffing out from her mouth in a laugh.

“You’re always sexy, I need my time to meditate on the deep sources of creation.” I said bluntly and without thought.

“You think I’m sexy hmm?” She spoke with a haughty tone, tail playfully swaying. “I do wonder if you realize what others see of you…”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Rumors move quickly my dear human,” she clasped my shoulder with a friendly grin. “They call you the Traveler, which is a good start towards an Earned Name.”

“Earned Name… that’s a sort of title isn’t it?” I asked. I knew it was something many of the stronger witches earned over time, as they grew in power and might and wisdom. I hadn’t gotten a good explanation of it however.

“It’s a manifestation of one’s Personal Legend,” Dinah explained, and I was drawn in by her voice. “The soul of the world, the heart of all things bestows each and every one of us with a personal legend, the purpose we have chosen for ourselves. From the smallest grain of sand to the grandest Others, the patterns of creation and destruction, of Light and Dark. An Earned Name is a part of that legend, drawing closer to the One and the All.”

“So it’s more than just a name is it?”

“Yes.” That gave me a nod. “Learning magic is a constant cultivation of mind, body, and soul. Of deepening one’s connection to the universe. Familiar, Foci, Domain grants a witch ontological weight. So does a Profession. Healer, Warder, Keeper. It shapes the form our magic will take, purifying it. An Earned Name is even deeper, granting those of the Craft with abilities and authority.”

“I’ve seen Ultima’s power before, how it can collapse the Craft within the abyss of her magic. Are you saying you think Traveler might become part of an Earned Name?”

“Yes. You’ve done a fair bit in your time here. I believe the world will acknowledge you.” There was a degree of faith in Dinah’s words, her haughtiness softening.

Oh… that’s nice.

“Thank you.” Was all I said, fiddling with my amulet. “I… hmm. How much have you found on my pen pal, on Chara?”

Very solid subject change, very not awkward. Totally.

Dinah crossed her arms over her bust. “Very little to be honest, every star and world in the night sky was once an Other, incarnating themselves within a Soul. Gods and spirits both.”

“So that’s why they’re dead despite still existing, they’re only half a Being?

“Yes. That is why they slumber,” Dinah answered. Her finger jabbed out to poke me in the rib. “Which is exactly why those few who remain are so troublesome, they survived because a part of them was not yet gone. They have survived a strike against the soul… and that leaves damage upon their flesh and their mind.”

“So it’s concerning that I have a connection to a potentially insane god-baby and know there’s a way to release them from their prison.” I said, giving myself time to freak out more later.

Five days of not acknowledging it had been a mistake in hindsight. I think I was gonna scream or cry.

I still remembered what She had done to me.

“Do you truly not believe this… Chara is a threat?” Dinah looked worried, pretty eyes staring intently.

“Not to us. She seems young, not quite a child but certainly not an adult. Like Arali if not a little older, like one of your younger cousins.”

She glared at me then sighed. “That is what I feared, you wish to free her?”

“She’s been trapped for an awful long time.” I said quietly, rubbing at my wrists, where phantom scars remained.

“Foolish. But I will not deny your kind heart.” Dinah softly said, reaching down to gently grip my chin. “If you insist on this path, I will see what I can find.”

I nodded.

“Thank you.”

----------------------------------------

“Careful with that many air glyphs, that’s how I ended up getting launched a hundred meters.” I gently bumped aside Arali, who was learning glyphs as a mental focus for his Voice.

“I’ve got this.” He waved away my advice, sticking out his tongue as he drew out the array on a sheet of paper. “I can finally Shout a tornado into existence, you’re not taking this from me.”

“You do that in the middle of a busy night street and I will be the one killing you when we’re both dead.” I smiled very warmly at a suddenly wary Arali.

I kept smiling.

“Stop being creepy.” He said while putting away his drawing. I flicked him on the nose.

“No.” I swept aside the fluff on his head, soft as silk feathers warping light like a black hole. “You do it first chump with your crazy reality warping, and the way existence curls around you like a knot.”

Arali snorted. “This coming from the girl who devours the space between spaces to teleport. You’re the talk of the taifa I’m sure, just look over there.” He pointed out a corner.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I turned and was met with curious gazes from teenagers, probably around sixteen to seventeen? Hard to tell, more a guess.

“Hi?”

The bundle of teenagers all flinched when I acknowledged their existence. A single blink let me see the world of threads and connections, a plenum of thought. The group of four had their connections to each other, pulsating at a set frequency.

The Gray had two sides, two patterns from which the Black and the White had been born. The void was contradictory, it was separation and connection. I had only been using one half of the equation, the side of Light. It was interesting to see the connections between people.

“Umm… are you really human?” One brave witch asked, with wide eyes. She had blonde hair and tanned skin, and big eyes.

I cupped my ears. “I don’t think round ears are common among witches are they?”

“So how do you do magic?” A boy spoke up with a curious sniff.

“Glyphs, a language of symbols capable of guiding and shaping the forces of the world. It lets me work out how to knot magic in the right way to create a spell.” I demonstrated by casting a fireball in the palm of my hands, drawing out heat from my body and sparking it into flame.

That had taken a moment to figure out, drawing from the internal instead of external. It meant an enormous source of heat, with the heat capacity of a human body being far greater than air.

“Are you seriously taking a human of all things seriously? A wild witch even?” A familiar voice piped up where it wasn’t wanted.

“Hello Amelia.” I greeted a certain fire-witch who was giving me a look of disdain. “Something the matter?”

I wasn’t being sarcastic, she looked like hot garbage. She was usually well-put together if a bit wild, but she had bags under her eyes and looked stressed as hell. The flames of her hair were weak, gasping sputters of heat and smoke.

“None of your business human,” she deflected instead. “I’m just here to put certain people in their place.”

I blinked. “I was literally knighted, not that it matters. But are you doing okay?” It felt like she was working off a script that was burnt to a crisp. “I am honestly concerned and I barely even know you? Your beautiful hair is all… not fiery?”

“Excuse me?” Amelia said with a high pitch, hair briefly flaring to life.

“Heh. Heh. Heh.” Arali was laughing. Didn’t know why though.

A shadow loomed over me, and Amelia choked, a sound full of a pain so deep it was uncomfortable to listen to.

“Human.” A smooth voice struck the air like a bell. “You wished to exchange data did you not?”

It was Adahn who had made his approach, standing on his hindlimbs. Which probed horribly intimidating when he was like… double my height.

“Err yes. I had questions I wanted to ask about rigids and the Silverlands, if you don’t mind. You can ask questions about humans.” I nervously tapped my fingers together, noticing the tension between the two.

“Adahn.” Amelia choked, taking a step back from us.

“Amelia.” The rigid said right back, five fingers curling into claws. “Leave.”

Before I could say another word, she had run away in a flash of flame and spark.

“Let us speak, and make our exchange human.”

Arali and I shared a glance.

Oh boy.

----------------------------------------

Adahn was a curious fellow, even beyond being a magical robot. He allowed Arali to scurry all over him without a second thought.

The rigid had an interesting form, six jointed limbs sprouting from his round body. Like a cross between a centaur, a lamp, and a snakefly. He could seamlessly shift his posture from hexapedal to quadrupedal to bipedal, with his primary pair serving as arms.

He was not short either, he was six feet down on all fours, and nine on just two. He was almost delicate, all limbs and rounded angles with four blinking optics. But I knew his muscles were deceptively powerful and his skin was harder than steel. Oddly enough they did need to breathe, using strange air pumps to suck in air and fluid feedstock. Their ‘lungs’ would act as combustion chambers, linked to a digestion chamber, generating energy fields through an unknown process.

Rigids harvest energy environmentally or internally, chasing after energy sources.

They did need to break down materials for self-repair, so they had their limits.

“So Amelia is someone you know then?” I decided to start up a conversation after that whole ordeal.

“I did.” He said, while leaving so much unsaid. “I have not seen her in a decade, and she has changed much.”

“Ten years is a long time for a person to change.” I acknowledged his point, wondering what had happened to Amelia to… become that.

It was sobering, seeing that faint tiny shiver of his optics, the slight static in his voice filled with pain.

“We took our own paths, our own goals seem like they no longer align. We have absorbed different data, and had different experiences.”

“It doesn’t make it too late, it just makes it difficult.” I pointed out despite myself, despite knowing how often humans killed each other over small differences.

I had to try though.

“Observation. You are far too optimistic.” Adahn pointed out. “The logical outcome of such a different experience is schism and conflict.”

“Maybe, but it’s not always the case. Life is complex, a lack of diversity, of flexibility is a good way to go extinct. Things can and do change, and it’s the most generalist, the most able to adapt who survives.”

“I would prefer not to speak of this further.”

“Acknowledged.” I raised my hands up in defense. “Can I ask questions on rigids then?”

“You may.” He said, granting me permission.

“What it’s like being… you? Being a being made of living metal and crystal? Any differences?”

“Many,” he said while cradling Arali, walking alongside me as I circled around a market. “At our core we are beings of crystalline structure, complex configurations of minerals imbued with intelligence.”

“So somewhat like robots but not?”

“Robots?” He asked.

“Robots are… basically machines operated by calculating devices made of silicon crystal. They’re artificial in a sense, but they’re not alive, they can’t really think.”

“What does being alive mean to you?” There was something in his tone there.

“From a scientific standpoint, you fit all the basic definitions. Reproduction, Response to Stimuli, Adaptation, Growth, Metabolism, Organization and Homeostasis.” I listed off each characteristic in my head. “Though there are some things that confuse that kind of thing like non-rigid crystals and viruses. But that’s now what you’re asking, is it?”

“Negative.”

“Then well… my honest answer is that if you think you’re alive that’s enough. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. Robots as humans know them don’t do that, even our best neural networks are a pale imitation of a true mind. They lack the kind of feedback loops that seem to create consciousness. And we barely understand how strange loops build the framework of the mind.”

“Humans have learned much about the mind then? What are these strange loops?”

“Think of them as cyclic structures which arrive back at where they started, like the chicken or the egg. It’s information looping back in itself across several levels of hierarchy, paradox and self-reference. The mind is theorized to be of a similar nature, a dense web of active symbols in a tapestry rich enough to loop back upon itself. I am because I am.”

I hadn’t talked about this kind of stuff in a long time… not since she had walked out on us and never looked back.

“Your robots lack these strange loops.” It was a statement rather than a question.

“Ehh… they might have some since strange loops are found in math and they’re all math. It’s really more a matter of not knowing which loops lead to mind and well… These models aren’t exactly large compared to a human brain. That I know of anyways.”

“Interesting, what else do you wish to know of us?” Adahn continued the conversation.

“Culture, there are many different kinds of rigids with different shapes and forms. How does that work?”

“We do not evolve as organics do, our blueprint can be changed, and our components work accordingly. As a result our body plans can vary widely.” He explained with an almost enthusiastic monotone.

“Huh, fascinating. I imagine there’s some things which are harder to edit, like how octopuses can freely edit their RNA but leave their DNA alone.”

“DNA… the code of organics, learned from my perusal of human texts. Yet it does not explain your kind’s lack of magic.”

I shrugged. “Aside from the levels of magic being low overall, I suspect it’s a matter of our souls not having a means to extend our energies outside our bodies. We’ve got energy pathways with an input but no output without an external tool like glyphs or Cyfrinic.”

We entered up going on and on for some time, a back and forth conversation on our species and our worlds. Adahn was a sweet tin man, even if his shell was made of fayalite.

Arali jumped onto my shoulder so I adjusted his furry butt onto my right shoulder

“Are you going to keep this nerd talk going for hours, we’ve done all our errands!” He complained.

“Sorry. Guess I lost track of time… just one last question.” I consoled Arali.

“Ask your query human.” Adahn insisted with curiosity coloring his voice.

“Do you have any stories about Others, with names preferably?”

Adahn blinked with his optics. “None that are not known Others, why?”

“Just looking into history, Ultima has a lot of old records I wanna fact check.” I fibbed.

“Observation: You know something.” Was there sass in there or was it just me?

I flushed. “I know a lot of things.”

There was a short meaningful pause.

“I will look into it. But I must leave. This exchange has been pleasant and fruitful.”

“Same.” I said honestly. “So uhh… bye.”

“Farewell.”

I hurried out of the crowd as he left, and didn’t remember much of the journey home as sleepiness began to bite at the edges of my brain.

I didn’t have any dreams that night.