The ceiling lamps flickered on as Hiran and the Savant-Slave stepped into the cavern, flooding its interior with harsh white light. Crates and synthsteel containers were strewn across the floor.
The Synth-Slave led him to a crate two-thirds of the way down the length of the cavern and tapped on the keypad upon its lid. The crate swung open. She gestured at it. “Please help yourself, Hiran the Godbreaker.”
“Before I start rummaging through that box, I want to ask a favor of you first. Please stop calling me ‘Godbreaker’. Just address me by my name—Hiran.”
“An acceptable request, Hiran.” The Savant-Slave’s crimson lens clicked. “I detect an involuntary tic in your features. According to my files on mortal sensibilities and body language, most mortals present it when they want to make another request after they have just had one fulfilled. Ergo, you have another request to make. What is it?”
“What’s your name? I can’t just call you by your Serial Code.”
“Ah. Another mortal sensibility.” She fidgeted with her forelimbs. “But my Serial Code is my name. To address me by anything else would be most… improper.”
“You’ve got to admit that ‘Ell-One-Locus-Alpha’ is a bit of a mouthful.” Hiran rubbed his jaw. “I think I have an idea. Why don’t I call you Lila? That’s an acronym, isn’t it? It’s made up of the first letters of your Serial Code.”
“No, it isn’t.” The Savant Slave shook her head, rattling the cables trailing from her skull again. “Unless you truly don’t know how to spell the word ‘one’, in which case Loremaster Maruti and I will have to reassess the implications of your illiteracy.”
“I know how to spell that word.” Hiran sighed. “It’s just… look. The number looks like the letter, alright? So, yes, let’s call you Lila. It’s also a perfectly proper Ghandarnian name for a girl.”
“My base cadaver is female, yes, but I’m not a girl.” The Savant-Slave’s bloodless lips twitched, as if in annoyance. “And yes, Lila is a common Ghandarnian name, especially amongst grain-farming peasants on the planet Anava.”
That’s where I was born. Hiran grinned. “So it’s settled, then. Your name is Lila.”
“I…” Her crimson lens whirred. Her black eye met his gaze. She nodded. “I like it. Yes, please address me as Lila henceforth, Hiran. With that issue resolved, you really should see to your equipment now.”
“Alright, I will.” Hiran reached into the crate and picked up the first thing he got his hands on. It was a plain gray spacesuit, complete with a compact life-support module the size of one of his finger-joints pinned above its left breast pocket. He’d worn many spacesuits ever since he left Chedi alongside Keyi.
Hiran slipped the spacesuit on quickly and buckled on the collar seal. It was form-fitting to his new proportions, and the synthetic material it was made up of was thin and light.
“There have been many advancements to spacesuit technology over the last hundred years,” Lila said. “Yours is one of the best money can buy, complete with self-cleaning and self-repairing functions. Its modular slots also allow you to attach all manner of powered armor components.”
“Powered armor?” Hiran blinked in surprise. “You mean like the armor Starforged Enforcers wear?”
“Yes, though Loremaster Maruti hasn’t been able to procure you a set of Starforged Plate, not even a standard-issue MK. XIII one.” Lila waved her forelimbs around, as if in approximation of a shrug. “You will have to make do with a simple Caderos Cuirass. It’s that breastplate at the bottom of the crate.”
Hiran picked the Caderos Cuirass up. It was very light, and it seemed to be made up of some olive-hued, ceramic material. He rapped his knuckles against its surface. This is much weaker than a Starforged Enforcer’s armor, but it’ll stop a simple blade and maybe even some stray bullets.
“Before you try to put that on, I believe I should go over your Ajna Interface first, if only to make this process smoother,”Lila said. She walked over to Hiran, reached out with one of her forelimbs, and pressed down hard on his left temple. “Ajna Interfaces all come with manual controls, so that children can adapt and learn how to use them. Once they grasp the mental controls, however, they disable the manual controls, preventing inadvertent applications of their Ajna Interfaces.”
“Inadvertent…” Hiran scratched the back of his head. He had a feeling he’d be doing that a lot in her presence. “You mean if someone or something presses the buttons in my head by accident and activates my Ajna Interface, right?”
“That is correct.” Lila rotated the limb she’d pressed against Hiran’s temple. “Therefore, you should follow the examples of the children I mentioned and disable the manual controls once you are able to use the mental ones. In the meantime… there. Loremaster Maruti has configured your Ajna Interface to properly reflect your unique circumstances.”
Words flickered into view before Hiran’s eyes.
Samsara Core
Aether reserves: 100%
Current Stage: Hallowed (H)
Note: Cultivate Aether to break-through to the next Stage.
Empyrean Circuits
Sun: H-Grade
Physical Boons: 10% resistance to damage from mortal weapons; natural regeneration rate +300%; limb regeneration within 7 days
Moon: H-Grade
Void Essence Capacity: 3 x Moderate per 24 hours
“I don’t even know what that all means,” Hiran said. “I’m going to guess that my Aether reserves refer to how much Aether I can expend before I get exhausted. With my Mortal Core, I always had to rely on my intuition to figure that out. This is pretty helpful, I guess.”
“I am going to link my Ajna Interface to yours. That should allow me to better guide you through the process.” Lila blinked, and more words appeared before Hiran’s eyes.
Accept Ajna Link Request from Savant-Slave L-1-Locus-Alpha?
Before Hiran could do anything, she tapped his temple with one of her metallic digits again.
Ajna Link accepted.
Your Interface is now linked to Savant-Slave L-1-Locus-Alpha’s.
“I used the manual controls to accept the request for you,” she said. “I hope you don’t take any offense at my presumptuousness, Hiran the Godbreaker.”
“I don’t.” Hiran shook his head slightly. He was suddenly aware of the Savant-Slave in a way he hadn’t been before, as if she would always be in the corner of his vision no matter where he looked. “Alright, so my Ajna Interface is active now. What does that have to do with me putting on any armor?”
Lila reached out and pressed a tab on his spacesuit, then another on the Caderos Cuirass. More words appeared in his Ajna Interface.
Kalas Industries Galeforce Spacesuit synchronized.
Current owner: Hiran the Godbreaker
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Caderos Cuirass MK. III Synchronized.
Current owner: Hiran the Godbreaker
Size XXXL selected…
…Initiating armorization…
The Caderos Cuirass dispersed into a cloud of olive-hued particles that wrapped itself around his torso, before returning to solidity once more.
Hiran whistled. “So this is the next wave of nano-technology that was taking off before I died, right?”
“Indeed. I remotely controlled your Ajna Interface to complete the synchronization,” Lila said. “Your spacesuit has a similar nano-tech function too, but you put it on before I could sync it to you.”
“Does this mean I can dress and undress with my Ajna Interface?” Hiran asked, tapping his temple. “That’s very handy!”
His spacesuit disappeared, before reappearing as a crumpled pile at his feet.
“You manually commanded your Ajna Interface to take off your spacesuit.” A small puff of air escaped Lila’s bloodless lips, as if she’d sighed. “You must master the use of your Ajna Interface as quickly as you can, or at least learn how to operate the manual controls. There is an instruction booklet in the crate. Please peruse it at your earliest opportunity.”
“Eh. I hate reading. I’ll figure it out by fiddling around.” Hiran waved dismissively. He reached for his temple again. “Let’s see. I want to put on my spacesuit again, so…”
Lila emitted a garbled mechanical beep, perhaps her equivalent of an annoyed shout. “Stop! Your ineptitude is… vexing. Here, I will take remote control over your Ajna Interface again and put your spacesuit back on for you.”
A moment later, Hiran was fully dressed once more. He drummed the fingers of his left hand over his breastplate. “This design doesn’t seem Ghandarnian. Is it foreign?”
“It’s from the Asharu Union, another stellar realm one-thousand and eight-hundred light years away from the Ghandarna system. Despite the distance between the Asharu Union and the Ghandarna Empire, intermittent trade has opened up between the two realms. There is now a small but sizable population of Asharicans on Madhya. There is a substantial number of Shanians there too, enough to form a distinct minority demographic. Loremaster Maruti intends for all of us to head there, incidentally, so you’ll see these foreigners for yourself soon enough.”
“Sure.” Hiran tapped his armor again. “But why did Maruti buy something so exotic though? Couldn’t he just have gotten something cheaper and just as reliable from any Ghandarnian merchant?”
“I assumed you would have already figured it out for yourself.” Lila shook her head slightly, setting her skull cables astir once more. “Loremaster Maruti stole your soul from the Gandharna Engine so that he could resurrect you, Hiran the Godbreaker. Those are capital offenses. He is a condemned criminal in the eyes of the Starforged Court and a known fugitive from the Starforged Enforcers. Ghandarnian markets are beyond his reach now. All the equipment you see here in this chamber was provided by Loremaster Maruti’s Shanian contacts, the chief of them being Scholar Bei Feng, whom I mentioned previously.”
“That makes sense.” Hiran rubbed his jaw and tried to recall more fully what he knew about the Shanians. They belonged to a neighboring stellar realm, the Shan Confederacy, which wasn’t nearly as far away from the Ghandarna Empire as the Asharu Union was. He hadn’t met many of them in his previous life, probably because, as Lila had pointed out, there were very few foreigners a hundred years ago.
One of the many things Keyi had been angry about was the “isolationist policies” the Starforged Court decreed and which the Starforged Enforcers enforced upon the borders of the Ghandarna Empire.
Evidently, that had changed, as had many other things, including himself.
There were a few more items in the footlocker. Hiran took them out and laid them upon the gurney. The first thing that caught his eye was a synthweave gunbelt. A bulky pistol sat in its holster. Five spare magazines had been slotted along its length.
He drew the pistol and realized that it already carried a magazine in its ammunition well. The first round wasn’t chambered, though. He worked the slide and did so, before thumbing the safety switch on and returning the pistol to its holster.
“You seem well-practiced with guns,” Lila noted. “That corroborates more of my records. Though Hiran the Godbreaker’s true forte lay in melee combat, he was also a competent marksman.”
“Guns make killing easy,” Hiran said quietly, as he strapped the belt across his waist. “I was brought back for a reason, one that involves a lot of killing, I’d suspect. I’m not going to turn down a helpful tool, no matter how much I want to.”
“Your gun is of Asharu make, too.” Lila blinked, and an image appeared in Hiran’s vision. It was a merchant’s logo of some sort, and it read “Cobra Armaments Inc.”. “This is the company that manufactured the Viper MK. V holstered at your hip, Hiran. It has a sturdy neo-palladium alloy frame, holds eighteen hexecutor standard rounds in its magazine, and features a select-fire toggle, giving you the choice of single-shot, three-round-burst, or full-auto. It features a slotted rail on top too, so you can add your optic of choice to it, if you come across or purchase one superior to its basic sights. Furthermore…”
“Hold on.” Hiran frowned and pointed at the logo, though he knew it wasn’t actually floating in the air before him. “This… this is a foreign language, isn’t it? I’m going to guess it’s the language used in the Asharu Union. How am I able to read this? I have trouble reading Ghandarnian as is.”
“About that last point… you no longer do. As per Loremaster Maruti’s instructions, I have uploaded via your Ajna Interface a comprehensive language pack into your hippocampus. You will find that you can now read and write perfectly in your native tongue, though what you said earlier when you were deciding on a name for me makes me wonder if an unpacking error of some sort has occurred. Also, you are now fully fluent and literate in eight-hundred-and-sixty-four languages and regional dialects throughout the galaxy. The Asharu language is one of them. Ergo, you can read the words on the logo.”
“What?” Hiran’s eyes widened. He didn’t know whether to be horrified or amazed at the notion of someone implanting knowledge into his head. Then again, I suppose that isn’t too far fetched, considering the fact that I’ve been literally brought back from the dead.
“What else have you put in?” Hiran asked, tapping his right temple this time, so that he didn’t accidentally press a switch of some sort on his Ajna Interface.
“Just a few basic skills, mostly those that you were severely lacking in during your previous life.” Lila’s lips curved slightly, and Hiran got the impression that she was smiling. “Loremaster Maruti tasked me to personally curate and choose the set of skills to be uploaded into your hippocampus via your Ajna Interface. He believed I would know best, given the extensive historical files I possess and the hundreds of analytical projections I’ve conducted on you.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Hiran grimaced. “Next time, please let me know before you put anything into my head.”
“Acknowledged.” Lila nodded. “I will inform you of any data uploads beforehand, Hiran.”
“Good. I’d really appreciate that.” Hiran turned his attention to the next object he’d taken from the footlocker. It was a simple set of void-boots, complete with gravity well inducers on the soles. He slipped them on before Lila could synchronize them. The Savant-Slave twitched in obvious irritation, before more words appeared in his vision again.
Kalas Industries Void-Boots (basic) synchronized
“Wait… Kalas Industries.” Hiran shook his head. “I’m familiar with that brand. It’s Ghandarnian. My boots and spacesuit are from that company. I thought Maruti couldn’t buy…”
“Those were his,” Lila said. “He wore them during his days as a Sage-Explorer for the Starforged Court. That’s why their measure and size befit a Starforged’s physical proportions.”
“Alright.” Hiran looked at the last item from the footlocker. It was a nearly five-foot long bundle of cloth. He unwrapped it and felt his breath catch in his throat. Shaking his head, he took the two straight swords by their hilts and drew them from their synthcase sheaths.
“These are mere replicas of your favored weapons, the Twinned Songs, Hiran, though Loremaster Maruti had them forged to his own proportions, which are significantly larger than yours were in your previous life,” Lila explained. She continued speaking as Hiran took a few steps away and gave the swords several experimental twirls. “The blades are made of a neo-palladium alloy, and the hilts are synthsteel. They bear no Aetheric Inscriptions though, so they’re not Aetheric Weapons.”
“Right… Aetheric Weapons…” Hiran frowned as he lowered the swords that looked so much like his Twinned Songs. They felt awkward and unwieldy in his grasp, perhaps because of their greater length and weight. Aetheric Weapons are weapons used by high-ranking Starforged Enforcers, the Mahadevas, their Generals and Champions, and they have all kinds of strange abilities.
He’d never needed a Aetheric Weapon before, though. His Twinned Songs, wreathed in the Aether burning from his Mortal Core, had been more than enough to slice even Ascendant Starforged apart.
Hiran cycled a bit of Aether from his Samsara Core and tried to push it toward the swords in his hands. The only thing that happened was that the golden lines across his chest and around his forearms flashed briefly. The Samsara Core didn’t—couldn’t—interact with his mortal meridians.
I can’t even gather less than a twentieth of the Aether I could with my Mortal Core, he thought, sighing and shaking his head. I will have to cultivate all over again and figure out an entirely different way to infuse my weapons with Aether.
But Hiran was no stranger to adversity. He had done it before, and he could do it again. This was his second shot at life. He wouldn’t waste it.
Yet he was still confused as to why he had been brought back to life.
Determined to find answers, Hiran sighed as he sheathed the swords and strapped them to his belt.
“How do you feel now that you are armed and armored once more, Hiran?” Lila asked, her black eye blinking slowly.
“Better,” Hiran admitted. He looked back at the words before his eyes. A line caught his attention.
Void Essence Capacity: 3 x Moderate per 24 hours
“What’s that about my Void Essence Capacity?” he asked Lila. “I see a bunch of numbers… and twenty-four hours. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all.”
“That’s the number and potency of spells you will be able to cast every twenty-four hours,” Lila explained. “Yes, you can wield sorcery now, thanks to the ingenuous artifice of Loremaster Maruti.”
Sorcery? Hiran thought with a start. Memories flooded his mind: entire fleets vanishing in starbursts of swirling plasma and cities of people being consumed by gibbering monstrosities emerging from thin air.
He’d seen sorcery bend the very fabric of space and time and defy every physical law. It was the language of unknowable, unthinkable gods, laughing endlessly in the Void.
And now he could wield it?