I lazily spun the two patterns I had obtained. There had been some touchy moments when the System had tried to intervene... or something, but the tear in the sky combined with some clever mana traps I made. Had been keeping it's influence to almost nothing.
Kalos stood by the structure holding the water pattern and seemed contemplative. So much had been bet on keeping the whole situation just so. That I wasn't too surprised that he was in such a mood, but I wouldn't be his Mother without feeling concern.
"Do you feel guilty?" He slowly shook his head.
"No, Mother, It was the best plan with the least risk for both sides." He waved a hand at the shifting light, "The tactics were good, and there was little room left for the enemy to react."
"And yet, you don't feel content to me." He waved his hand at the pattern again.
"I just wish I could trust the feelings within my soul. The ones that say she would have listened if we had talked straight to her." He clenched the hand into a fist then released it, "Yet, I know, logically, that she would have tried to fight us regardless. Likely with more losses for those people." A wave indicated the rest of the patterns floating in their own cells. I was quite proud of my speed of harvesting them right after death. Though it made me wonder if the System did anything with them at all. They were dense in power and could convert that white energy into mana, so I had a feeling it should.
"Yet, I also remember how people are not like us, Mother." He continued, turning to face the room more than the alcove, "They have these passions that drive them more than logic, and it is beautiful and frustrating." With a gesture sand from within his form condensed into a stone.
"I am at peace with our choices and who we are. Yet, one question remains to me." I formed a question mark out of fire mana. It was something I wanted to try, and it made him chuckle like stones tumbling. So I marked it as a success.
"What is Imperia?" His question was a bit of a curveball.
"I am still not sure exactly where the word fits in, but it was always on my mind when I read 'A Song of Fire'." I responded, with many threads of thought possible, I had one dedicated to trying to search for the word in all the books and copies of books Yana had collected.
"Do you think the System is just a parasite?" Another odd question, but one I had done plenty of thinking about.
"No, it must require a vast complex of scripting and perhaps even these patterns in some way. If script was tight enough, I think it would be possible to build a pattern from them. Though, if it would grant some level of intelligence is unclear." Even my thought threads weren't able to hold it all together long enough to show progress.
"Likely, it would require many people and a series of machines built for the singular goal." I formed a pair of shrugging hands in the air. Getting the knuckles right was always a challenge when I practiced, so they came out a little blobby.
"So, you think it had or has a purpose beyond a jail?" Now, I was starting to understand his thoughts. Before he was made, I had never given thought to anything more than 'System Bad'. But, with his influence leveling my mind out somewhat. I started to see the issues with such thoughts. Its too complex to JUST be a prison, and you could make a prison so much easier. Just drain all the mana and make similar things toxic or seem so.
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"I hazard there is a purpose. Perhaps its like my own motivation to see the world. I could, now, possibly make my own body to leave here. Yet, I was impatient and created life instead. Turns out all dungeons create or, at least, change life around. So, it was hidden motivations making me act." The hands again, this time tapping together like I had seen merchants do. It was a fun expression.
"I don't think dungeons were meant to be sentient, but I think that white energy made us so somehow. It seems to be more....fundamental than mana. I can't help but see patterns and potential in it when I try." I paused, just because I had enough thought threads to process all the information and experiments. Didn't mean I had practice explaining it. Perhaps I should write a book on it. Kalos seemed attentive though so I pushed on.
"If that's the case, then perhaps the System wasn't meant to be either, and was supposed to fulfill a function. When it became more, it couldn't quite remember that function, but was driven by it as it tried to understand it's situation. Over time it would have likely created an entire lie based on the truth. Like where I was going before you." Kalos lifted a hand at that to point at himself.
"Because my aspect helped to manage the others?" I gave him a thumbs up.
"Exactly, with the imbalance and not seeing the problem. I continued down a path that would have likely not been me. I would have become something very different from who I started as." I created branching roots of light mana in the air. I had a feeling I would need more examples.
"We all start on a path." I pulsed the first line leading to a split into three, "At certain points things happen that shift our views of the world in certain directions. For good or ill these have a chance to become part of us, or...." I pulsed the three lines. Two continued off before splitting again and again, but the third line went back to the same position of the first line.
"If the event is worked through or is more a factor of outside events. It is just a bump in the road, though that doesn't mean that sentient creatures aren't always changing in some ways." I found myself really enjoying the direction of this lesson, and was inscribing it on some stone while I continued.
"So, I think that the System, is some kind of machine that has a purpose in the Realm. And, perhaps even the Realm itself had or has a purpose. The strange visions and half remembered dreams I have experienced, like the one about mana balancing. Are clearly not meant for me directly." I paused again here, thinking back to that moment of surreal clarity.
"No, it's like a torn apart book. I am seeing pages that have fallen to the floor or off the shelf, but most of the book is still holding together. I think the sky tear is part of that as well. A damage to the Realm shouldn't be a thing for just anyone to be able to manage. I am not THAT special." Kalos raised a hand at that.
"You are Mother, and are special to us." He said simply, and it made me feel nice. Of course they would say such things, but I also felt like he understood what I meant. A whole world broken because of some stone carvings? No, there must have been an underlying fault or issue that I just tapped into. Though the System had been quiet for a long time, I could, until yesterday's victory, feel it trying to do more.
Now, it was just gone. I could never see it's corruption in mana, but I had ways to reduce and remove it regardless. Yet, those systems weren't glowing as bright, or showing the build up of corruption. It was like it had given up on this place. Too much loss for it to recover? Or perhaps it was trying to focus on something far more important?
I had a feeling it was related to Pyra and Yana off near the Door. A lot of old stories revolved around that thing, and I was pretty sure it was part of this whole underlying "system". Something that this place was made to do or be.
"Should we get started on your new sister then?" I asked, knowing he had been burning, metaphorically, for this.
"Yes! I am excited to see if we share similar feelings from before, and what form will water take. Many things to think about." He nodded his head, he would take his time to think through them all too, and would likely be happy but not surprised when it was done.
"Let's get started then." I said, charging up the Heart Chamber.
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System Region 1302-S has been removed from the registry.
Realm stability 52%.
Recovery... not possible.
Outside influence... Confirmed.
Command Words isolated... 11/11
Worry...High