CHAPTER 3: TENSIONS
The next few days and weeks went by as Diala and I set into a rhythm. Diala got another bed for me to put in what had previously been only her bedroom, but was now one we shared. She originally tried to put my bed on the other end of the room from hers. I glared at her until she fixed this egregious lapse in judgment. Now our beds are squished together, making one big bed fit for even more cuddling!
After we woke up we did our morning ablutions. Seeing what I looked like for the first time in a polished piece of metal that was held in the cramped bathroom was an experience. I had an idea of what I looked like. I had my own blueprints uploaded into my brain after all. But seeing it all come together into the form of a young girl was a different thing altogether. My artificial skin was a tanned bronze. The type of tan that seemed to say I used to be pale but went outside too much for it to stick. I had straight light brown hair that was held back in a ponytail that draped to the nape of my neck. I wore similar clothes to Diala just with different colors. Off-white canvas shirt with a brown leather overcoat and pants for protection against the dangerous things we worked with. What really stood out however were my eyes. Brightblue and slightly glowing, they were gorgeous and also marked me as being a Mech.
There was then breakfast. Usually an oatmeal for her and useless scrap metal for me. Afterwards we went to Diala’s workshop and worked on whatever orders had come in. Sometimes it would be fixing a broken down cleaning bot. Sometimes it was fixing an artifact - the term for a magical item of some sort regardless of age. Or make. Not all artifacts were of Artifice make after all.
That blew my mind. After all, all I had known that could produce those effects were the Artifice things in my databanks. After expressing my surprise Diala sat me down at the end of the day for some much needed lessons.
Diala brought out two chairs and brought over a big board that she used to prototype new ideas and erased everything that was on there and turned to me.
“What do you know about magic and mana?” she asked authoritatively.
“That it’s used in artifice, does things that aren’t possible conventionally, and that mana is everywhere? Oh, and mana can affect rocks in different ways!” I answer.
Diala just sighs, “Looks like I’m starting from the beginning. I just had to forget to upload everything. Good going Diala.” she mutters. Diala then straightens herself out and gets to explaining. “Magic is the act of manipulating mana in order to affect the world around you. There are two main ways in which that can be achieved. The first is Magecraft, the most common throughout history and even today. Magecraft is the act of manipulating mana with your mind and through force of will and study. The other is Artifice, the act of manipulating mana through the use of tools; most commonly those rocks - called mana stones - you mentioned earlier. They each have their upsides and downsides. Enchanted artifacts are the work of magecraft. The ones we work with are made with artifice.”
She peered over at me, seeing my slightly dazed expression. “Alright,” she said firmly yet kindly, “I’ll end it here for today. You can take a break, we’ve finished all our orders for today anyways.” Diala stayed nearby however, working on personal projects, but always keeping an eye on me.
Not that I really noticed. What she said wasn’t all that confusing, but it did lead to a grand realization for me. As if a dam had been broken, different connections were being made. Realization on how things worked. On how wires filled with powdered mana stone could lead a certain type of mana to where it needed to go. On how certain types of mana stones could store data from the simple fact they could be made small and turned on and off in a sequence of code that could form a whole language. On how they all came together to form a whole. I went through each of my blueprints, for the first time truly understanding how they worked.
After I went through the last one I looked around and noticed my surroundings had gotten much darker. There was no sunlight streaming through the barely covered cracks in the building, and the lights were off. And wrapped around me was my soft blanket. Looking around a bit more I saw Diala had brought the blankets from their room and was laying down on the ground near where I had suddenly spaced out on my chair.
Getting up from my chair I shuffled over to her, trying to be as quiet as I possibly could. I had used a lot of my processing and needed to shut down for a while in order to recharge. Basically I needed some sleep. Gently laying down next to Diala I pulled the blankets up around us both.
Diala stirred a bit, and I cringed hoping I hadn’t woken her up. “G’night Aria. Love you.” she groggily mumbled.
A brilliant smile broke out across my face as I barely held back from squeezing her closer. “I love you too.” I whispered back.
—------------------------------
Not everything was going smoothly however. The explosion that went off at the Mech Rights branch was found to be an intentional attack. The remains of a bomb were found in the wreckage. A frantic search around other branches turned up more explosives all set to go off at the same time. It turned out the one that went off near our workshop was defective.
What made it so much worse was that it was determined to be cleaner mechs that brought them in. Cleaner mechs whose destroyed bodies were found later in a scrap heap.
People were scared and angry. Diala tried to shelter me from it, but I saw the sideways glances when people saw me. How someone's demeanor changed when they noticed my glowing eyes, or my unusual diet. Finally I grew tired of not knowing.
“Diala, why are some people treating me differently from you? And why do some mechs treat you differently than me? You’re awesome!”
She smiled down sadly upon me. “You remember that explosion?” I nodded. “Well we found out someone caused it. We also found out that those who caused it were mechs who got scrapped.”
“That’s horrible!” I exclaim.
“I know hon. And it’s making everyone scared. We don’t know who did it and so people are trying to find ways to protect their families in their grief. Some people think it was just a pair of dysfunctional mechs that caused the explosion. Others think it’s a larger conspiracy.”
“Conspiracy?” I ask.
“It means a group of people planned it out.”
“But why would they do that?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“The people who think the mechs caused it think that it was done in order to justify violence against organics. Those who think the anti-mech side caused it think that the Artificers Union.
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“What's the Artificers Union?”
Diala’s face darkens at the question. “Originally they were just a group of people dedicated to making sure Artificers' voices were heard. Nowadays they’re a group lobbying the nobility to get rid of mechs. Mechs are cheaper and can be better than people after all. Wouldn’t want to cut into their profit margins.”
“I don’t want to get scrapped. I want to help you! Please, Mom, don’t let them!” tears gather at the corner of my eyes and begin to stream down when Diala pulls me into a hug.
“Don’t worry hon, I won’t ever let anyone take you away from me.”
—-----------------------------
After that conversation Diala began leaving the shop instead of continuing her personal projects. When I asked what she was doing she just gave me a loving smile and said that she was doing her best to make sure nothing happened.
I tried making progress on some of the projects she had left behind. The ones she allowed me to be near anyways, but so many of them made my head spin. I had some ideas on how they worked or what she wanted but there were just as many points where I didn’t have a clue on how to proceed.
So I started going out. When I got to a point where I couldn't make heads or tails of what she was doing, or how to continue the project I left the shop to explore the city. Where the crowds used to be meandering, the crowds were now hurried with a tangible tension in the air. A few times I tried to go up to a stand to buy something with the wage/allowance I got from Diala and was pointed to a sign on the store saying I needed ‘my owner’ with me to buy anything. Other times it was with a less kind ‘fuck off robot’ or even the occasional threat. She quickly hurried away from those places.
One day while walking around I heard a familiar voice. “Why do we fear them? Do we fear our children because someday they might be better? Do we outlaw our fellow man because of a crime they might or might not commit?” It was Diala!
“Is that who I think she is?”
“Wasn’t Diala thrown out?”
“I thought she was thrown out of the city, not just the research institute!”
Pushing through the crowd I ignored its mutterings and cried out for the woman who had become my mom.
She noticed me and quickly stopped her speech. “Aria!? What are you doing here!” she hopped down from the raised ground of the square I had found her in. She ran over to me and swept me up into a hug. “You’re not supposed to be out here young lady! Do you know how dangerous it is right now?” she said as she grabbed my arm and began to drag me away.
I frowned up at her. “But, I’m so booooored.” I definitely didn't whine.
Just as the crowd began to disperse, someone else stepped onto the stage. Someone much more official looking. Wearing a white and gold colored uniform, the outfit was form fitting and had tassels hanging from each button that closed up his uniform on either side of his torso. His tall white and gold hat had a silver chain that went under his chin, ostensibly to keep it in place but probably just to look neat. I liked the goofy hat.
Diala seemed much more concerned at the sight of the man however.
The man pulled out a scroll and unfurled in and cleared his throat. “By the decree of the Maratus City Council a decision has been made regarding the issues presented by the Artificers Guild. The decree is thus. There are to be no more mechs manufactured without the explicit authority of the Council effective immediately. Any who are found to be breaking this law are subject to penalties up to and including having your Artificers license revoked, a heavy fine, and/or imprisonment. That is all.”
The man walked off the stage as the crowd turned into an uproar. Some were cheering and others looked angry. One person - a mech - got punched and fell to the ground.
Diala grabbed my hand and firmly started pulling me away before I could see what happened. She looked pale. “We need to get back to the shop.”
“Bu-”
“Now.”
She dragged us into her shop and closed the door behind us, locking it firmly.
Outside of the door I heard noises that made my circuits run cold. Destruction. People yelling about having ‘found another one’. Then the screaming started. People screaming, begging for their lives were suddenly silenced by loud thuds or crashes.
As I stood frozen Diala came back with one of the prototypes she hadn’t let me touch or help with. It was a handheld device with some sort of barrel at the end. She had always complained about it being too expensive to use.
She pulled me beside her. She looked down at my fear stricken face and her own features softened for a moment before hardening back up. “Get into the workshop. Hide in one of the emptied scrap crates. Whatever you see or hear, don’t come out.” She pushed me towards the workshop and I ran, fear pushing me into a franticness I had never before experienced. Hopping into one of the crates I had emptied with my voracious appetite I pulled the cover beck over myself and looked through the small hole in the side facing Diala.
She had turned back and aimed the device at the door. A door that rapidly started thumping, then cracking. A sound that echoed in my ears like the beat of a demented drum. Until finally it broke down.
People rushed in. Some I recognized as the particularly mean shopkeepers who threatened and demeaned me, most I didn’t have an inkling on.
Diala’s device let out a WRATHOOM as she pulled the trigger, releasing a flash of light that hit one of the first men through the door. There wasn’t even a thump as his ashes hit the ground.
Instead of slowing the others down it just seemed to embolden them, rage marring their features as the crowd rushed down the hall. More WRATHOOM’s echoed out as Diala peddled backwards toward our workshop, taking down more of the murderous rioters. “Dammit!” I heard her curse. She never cursed around me.
She reached the workshop and reached towards one of our prototypes, an unfinished one. My eyes widened as she pressed a button and threw it at the invaders. The device exploded, sending shrapnel flying around and taking several of the people out of commission.
With the wider space of the lab however Diala was quickly overrun, her own weapon taken from her grasp and broken as she was wrestled to the ground.
“What the hell do you want!” she spat at them.
“Where’s the freaky glowing eyes girl! The biggest man yelled back. He pointed a sparking baton at her.
“No idea what the fuck you’re talking about, now get out of my house!”
“Don’t lie to me! The little bitch kept walking around town like she owned the place!” Then the man kicked Diala in the face. She didn’t make a noise as a sickening crunch came from her face.
I whimpered.
The man's eyes widened, then a sickening smile came across his face. He walked toward my crate as fear kept me stiff, and pulled the top off the crate I was hiding in. Diala's struggles intensified against the people pinning her down.
“Don’t you dare touch her!” she screamed, rage and fear in equal measures making her voice trembled.
The man didn’t care. He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out as I started to thrash against him. “No one else is here huh? Well, obviously she shouldn’t be here so we’ll fix that for you.” He threw me towards the crowd who quickly encircled me.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” I heard Diala roar behind me as the first hits rained upon me. It hurt. So much. I heard crunches oh so similar to the noises I made as I chewed on scrap. My artificial skin was torn apart. I lay sobbing, nearly incoherent as there was a pause. Then the sound of sparking. Another hit, this time somehow more painful than the rest as electricity ran through my parts.
TOO MUCH DAMAGE HAS OCCURED. INITIATING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN.
Those were the last words I heard before I fell into oblivion.