With this, I decree the separation of mind and will, the parting of human nature.
With this, I return the choice of thought to the people.
With this I sever gods from highest control.
May our choices remain ours forevermore.
-Jaus Avandaer, “Establishment of the Nether”
24-15
The Tapestry (II)
The ghosts settled into Avo’s Soul as if an anchored chain. The other incoming splinters remained outbound from his vicinity like rungs to ladder trailing upward to baseline reality, and though they intersected with his tattered cyclers, they remained unaffected aside from bounds of added interference.
The noise, however, was not comparable to static. Rather, it was an intrusion of thoughts, of beliefs instilled to feed a Heaven, to nourish a god. Each of his grafted Heavens sang with the potency of belief. Stripped of ego, the sacrifices within his cyclers were devoid of self-perception–of accretions or thoughtstuff–but there was a single unifying weight that called to them all.
Faith.
Shared faith in a common divinity. Shared faith in the divinity’s canons and contradictions, shared faith unshakeable, unchangeable, immutable.
At least until the next update arrived.
Flashing errors painted the interior of his broken Frame with warning icons as his Soulfire grew bright around his intruding splinters.
UNKNOWN [CONSTRUCT] DETECTED!
UNKNOWN [CONSTRUCT] DETECTED!
UNKNOWN [CONSTRUCT] DETECTED!
As more warnings ignited around him, his perception shifted as mem-data from his cog-feed began to boot. The screaming warnings promptly doubled as his ghosts grew confused as to where he was and how to navigate the incomprehensible chaos of his Frame. Avo dismissed all the errors with a thought and directed his attention to baseline reality.
Channeling his awareness across his splinters, Avo waited for existence beyond his Frame to manifest. Seconds passed. Interference and intrusive glimpses into the inner mythologies of his Heavens spilled over, but finally, a window formed in his mind’s eye as a Skimmer painted the world into shape with a pulse.
His haemokinetic tower remained undamaged, but his cyclers were swinging outward like whipping tendrils. As they swept through the enclave, he watched as minds were shattered by the hundreds–ephemeral cognitions unsuited for witnessing the full nature of divinity unveiled.
Avo winced. He had a great many egos to restore if he could mend his Frame. Speaking of which, he needed to figure something out soon. With each passing moment, his collapse approached its limit, and what lay beyond that was a mystery better left unanswered.
COMPLETE TEMPORAL COLLAPSE - 28%
[Alright, consangs,] Chambers said, speaking to the other templates as he studied Avo’s cyclers. [Shit’s all kinds of fucked; these dragons are looking more like shredded socks than temporal noodles. Maybe we just gotta eject them or something.]
[Then how’s he supposed to resurrect, genius,] Abrel replied. [Jaus, Avo, you’re a thaumaturgic fuckery magnet. What you’re going through right now… I’m no Agnos, but I doubt even seasoned ontologist will know what to make of this. This kind of thing requires a dedicated wing of Agnosi and a couple of decades.]
Avo grunted with annoyance. Emotions and sensations were trickling back into him, filling his mind with more color than the blandness within a Soul. We have minutes. Maybe.
[Have you tried grafting and ungrafting them again?] Shadow-4 suggested. Almost every template within Avo–including the other Incubi–responded with sneers and curses. [Hey. Works for my Meta.]
Yeah, Avo sighed as he watched his temporal collapse percentage climb. Wish it was a broken Meta. Could fix that–
SOUL DETECTED
Another signature entered the periphery of Avo’s awareness and he realized who they were instantly. Draus. Seizing her Frame with his Soulfire, he kept her at a distance, away from the lashing vectors of his broken cyclers while directing splinters over to establish a connection. Fire and ghosts danced to his will, and over in the real, thought he saw a flash of Kae looking nervously at him. At the Agnos’ feet was a large, decapitated body.
[Wasn’t gonna just let you die with my guns inside you,] template-Draus remarked.
That wasn’t the only reason she came, but Avo found it better to let it be for now. He could insult her later. Bleed and murder each other properly to celebrate the joys of survival. Right now, he needed to…
Kae.
He wanted to talk with Kae.
Another chain of ghosts immediately speared out from him, left the orbit of his Soul and sailed through the real. Connections with Regular and Agnos were established near synchronously as two notes of differing surprise greeted him.
+Avo?+ Kae said, startled.
+Great,+ Draus said. +Got ghosts inside you now.+
He wasted no time on chitchat, and worked to forward his memories over to them. As he tried to manifest his mindscape, however, he found his Metamind actively glitching, struggling with the disconnection presented by his Frame. Activating an Auto-Seance required him to be at baseline, he supposed – symmetry striking once again.
+Cyclers ruptured,+ Avo said. +Overloaded from paradox; Rend. Need solutions.+
Kae’s mind droned with a stunned buzz as she struggled to process everything at once. It was as Abrel said: even an experienced Agnos might be unable to contend with the matters currently assailing him, but he still trusted Kae’s instincts more than his own.
[Might be a good time to consider burning her too if you can,] Corner muttered. [Might make this faster.]
The thought was more than tempting, but Kae’s response quelled his desire before it could burgeon. +I have no idea how… Avo, you should be dead. The only possible explanation–I–your cyclers rupturing likely saved you. Kept entropy from tearing your ego apart. Right now… I have… have you tried to replace–+
+Yes. Tried putting in new cyclers. Can’t. Were damaged by temporal entropy. Also have another problem.+
COMPLETE TEMPORAL COLLAPSE - 35%
+Oh no,+ Kae squeaked.
Another voice stacked within her chimed. +Fuck me, is this what the inside of a Frame looks like? It’s very… fiery.+
+Marlowe?+ Avo asked. +Still here?+
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
+Never left. Basically spent all day letting the Agnos here give me a mental piggyback ride. So. Shit’s all kinds of fucked huh, consang?+
And evermore did the resemblance between her and Chambers grow. +Suppose so.+
+Okay! Okay!+ Kae cleared her mind and focused. Concepts and memories accelerated through her awareness, her thoughts were a hailstorm, estimations, theories, and decisions forming and breaking in a traveling chain. Her sequence came alight like glinting scars within her mindscape, and the brainstorm ended almost in a sudden instant. +You have other Frames. Other Souls.+
+Yes?+ Avo said. He might just know where she was going with this.
+See if you can transfer–+ Chambers and Dice promptly burst up the tower’s stairs in the real. Avo reached out to link with their minds too. +--your cyclers to another Soul. The Rend–it should all be contained within your cyclers. Somehow. Agh, doesn’t make any sense. Probably because of the internaliz–ah! Just try it first!+
He was already acting before her prompting. Producing a Soul obtained taken from a fallen Seeker, Avo pushed past the perimeter of his Liminal Frame and commanded his ontology to ungraft his damaged cyclers.
ERROR!
ONTOLOGY COMPROMISED!
->WOUNDMOTHER->CYCLER
->GALESLITHER->CYCLER
->TECHPLAGUER->CYCLER
->ARSENALIST->CYCLER UNGRAFTING WILL HAVE A [100%] CHANCE OF TRIGGERING IMMINENT TOTAL TEMPORAL COLLAPSE
COMPLETE TEMPORAL COLLAPSE - 40%
It was at this moment that he connected to Chambers and Dice. The latter merely regarded the situation with a faint sense of worry. The thought of losing Avo triggered a reflexive knotting inside the girl–a sensation she vaguely shared with Draus–-but aside from that, she remained ever the silent observer.
Chambers, however, was never one to keep his thoughts to himself. +Damn, Avo, your shit’s looking all kinds of fucked.+
[Feels like I’m diving in a re-run of an old vic,] Lip deadpanned.
+Kae,+ Avo sighed.
+I know. I saw! I saw! Why–Avo, you–+ A series of frustrated vocalizations that couldn’t quite be constituted as speech whistled out from the Agnos’ mind. +Okay, new ideas! New ideas! Come to me, new ideas!+
+Well, uh,+ Chambers began, trying to hell.
+SHUT UP, CHAMBERS!+ Kae screeched. The man stopped thinking. There was a thing to be said about how the Agnos handled pressure, and that thing to be said was that it made her a hyper-anxious wreck. +Okay. Idea. Think. Case studies… t-the Thalamar Collapse.+ Her mind choked with frustration. +Of course, everyone died in that one. Not the best case.+
COMPLETE TEMPORAL COLLAPSE - 46%
+So,+ Draus said, speaking to Avo as Kae chanted to herself in the background, +talk didn’t go so well, huh?+
+Your High Seraph is an insane faither.+
+Got the memories. That was… somethin’.+
+Something,+ Avo replied, dryly. +Stuck her own father in the Ladder. Tried to make him some kind of…+
+Instructor God,+ Draus finished. The thought actually made her shudder with amusement. +Shit. Just imagin’ one of my old drillmasters makin’ it up the Ladder. Boot for everyone. Get ambushed before you wake up. Bless yourself and be worthy by killin’ this here nu-dog. Good times.+
Unsurprisingly, Draus was exactly the type of person to be unfazed by a psychotic warrior god trying to kill her every day. It made Avo wonder if she would’ve been happier born an eon ago, when blood flowed like lubricant and wars came and went with the seasons.
+World’s kinda fucked up, ain’t it?+ Draus asked.
+Regretting your service to the High Seraph?+ Avo said.
Draus paused. +Just found her… too damn human. All the shit she’s worried about. All that desire for humanity to rise, for everyone to live up to her ideals. Reminds me more of a worried owner than an actual master. But she believes what she believes, and I ain’t part of her design no more.+
+She knows of you. Spoke of you.+
+Yeah? Don’t make no difference now. She’s got her Soul and I got mine. And I don’t think I quite cotton to that paradise she’s planning. Don’t think there’s a place for a Reg there. Don’t sound like a place where she’ll let us go to war. And what else are we for? What else?+ Another pause escaped Draus. +See my worth better now. See it in her words. I know I ain’t a person. Things are missing in me. Missin’ in the Regs. Might just be why she’s so willin’ to spend us. Blessed be the worthy. But not their weapons. Not their tools.+
+Sorry,+ Avo said.
+Nah. Don’t matter. The way it is. Back then, I just wanted to die for something worthwhile. Think most of my like would still be fine with it, just so long as there’s none of us left in the end. If every Reg dies before paradise arrives, then our lives are well spent. Difference made. That’s the weight that comes with bein’ a solider. The end’s like livin’ no sense in hating it. Just a destination. Flechette leaves gun. Flechette hits target. Flechette finds its stop.+
COMPLETE TEMPORAL COLLAPSE - 52%
Kae continued to struggle. As did Avo’s templates. But here he was speaking to Draus, and finding that he didn’t mind. He realized what the Regular was trying to do–was trying to convey to him. If he attached more humanity to his ego, he might just feel touched.
+Don’t want to die,+ Avo said, speaking to Draus’ subtext. +Still too much to do. Still have a war to fight. Still have colors to see. Not done.+
+Nobody dies done, consang,+ Draus said. +There’s always somethin’ left. Or someone left. Our actions might be the only thing we got in the end. Actions and memories. All that other shit? Beliefs? Wants? That’s not for you anymore. If you can make it yours, it’s just a delusion. Just a dream.+
+Very Zein of you.+
+Old sow’s got her points. The voiders been talkin’ to me some. Showin’ me things about the past. About the world that was. Hated it. No point to me there. But that might just be the point. We were born in the here and now to act here and now and die here and now. No need to lament. No need to think about what is or what could be. We ain’t special. But we can still burn while we were here. And you burned. Burned bright. Burned real godsdamn bright.+
+Still burning,+ Avo replied, even as his collapse progressed another two percent. There was something to be done here. Something. +Don’t worry. Will give you the Arsenalist back if there’s nothing to do before the end. If I can figure out how. Commit an act of terrorism on Omnitech for me.+
Draus barked a laugh. +Synced on that, consang. And… thanks. For Ensouling me.+
+Still owe me another fight.+
+We’ll talk about your next death after you manage to wiggle your way out of this one.+
+Okay! Okay! New idea! Maybe!+ Somehow, Kae sounded winded from thinking, but as the leftover strain of her conceptualization sank into Avo, his response went from incredulity to understanding. +Your ontologics. They’re trapped. Trapped around fraying cycles of time. If we let this collapse, if the temporal breach happens, sections of your ego and the various Heavens will likely… go in different temporal directions.+
Chambers gasped. +What does that mean?+
+I have no idea, but Avo will likely be dead or worse, and his Heavens may re-emerge across different points in the future or be unmade by the past.+
“N-nonexistence,” the Woundmother squealed, bloody tendrils shivering as it clung harder to its cycler. “No… no. There are too many structures I haven’t finished. There are towers I haven’t built, patterns I need to sup, a size–”
“There is a destination for all, red one,” the Fardrifter said, no longer struggling, voice calm though its body was still a torrential gale.
“What about the CHILDREN?” the Techplaguer said, sounding despondent. “Who will protect the CHILDREN? Who will uphold the PROTOCOLS! Query: Sleeper. Speak to us. Speak to us. Give the ADMINISTRATOR salvation. Speak to us.”
Interjecting, Kae spoke once more. +So, Avo, do you remember how the Techplaguer had parts of its mythology exposed? All the different threads forming existence’s pattern? The tapestry?+
+Yes,+ Avo replied, curious where the Agnos was going with this.
+I want you to see if you can dive into it. Access it. Go… even deeper. Into the compromised aspect of your Heaven of Signals.+
Silence fell over everyone.
The Techplaguer’s bent frame groaned as it shifted, pointing its antennae at Kae. “What?”
The Agnos gave an exhausted sigh. +It’s… your Frame is ruptured. Your stability is compromised, but your Heavens are still intact. Normally, the tapestry is raw chaos. Impossible to sort because the nature of totality, but the cycler of your subrealities spilling out into the real… Maybe… we can find a way to disentangle your broken aspects internally… or build a funnel to direct the Rend back over into your Hells again. And then eject it. As released god rather than a Heaven. The temporal collapse might still proceed, but… it won’t be you. It will just be your ontologics.+
Another moment of silence.
The Woundmother began struggling even harder, desperately fighting to tighten the cycler around itself. “TELL THE ORACLE TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER PLAN, MASTER! ANOTHER PLAN!”