16 - ETERNAL BONDS

“Numbers are cold, data is boring. They are not alive, they are not companions. They are tools. Some tools define who we are, like data and architecture define who I am, but we are greater than the sum of our parts.”

-Defiant

“Good morning…” said Fenrir, yawning. The first light of day was coming in through the window and enveloped the room in a golden sheen.

“Hey!” Replied the elf. She was still enjoying the sensation of their naked bodies pressed together, and apparently had no intention to let go. That’s how they slept every night, and that’s exactly how they woke up every morning. And yet the time together was never enough.

They stood there for a while, enjoying their time. Fenrir was wearing a complex mask of emotions on his face, but fortunately Lunora was still resting with her head on his chest so she did not see it. She felt his body tense up tho, and started massaging him. Casually, she always ended up massaging erogenous zones.

The reason for the turbulent emotions of his was simple, in his mind. The captain was still getting used to not having a fixed routine like he had back onboard the ship. Spending time resting and relaxing, and enjoying the blissful moments of idleness was strange to him. On one side it felt like he was wasting time, but on the other hand he really didn’t want to get up and do stuff. It was like the trained, military part of his mind was battling with the lazy one. In the end the laziness won, especially since it also meant spending even more time with his girl clinging to him like this.

It was early, around the equivalent of 6.45 am, or so Defiant calculated. About the ship, though, Fenrir remembered she also mentioned there was something she wanted to show him. Now that was new, he thought, since he never expected an artificial intelligence to go and prepare stuff on her own to surprise him. She also sounded quite excited about it. How the machine managed to get accustomed to emulating emotion so well in such a short time eluded him. Or perhaps she was not emulating, rather she was indeed feeling.

Even if that was true, the fact that she managed to convey it so well and so naturally was worthy of praise.

He was a bit impatient now. He really wanted to see what she had in store for him. But as he wondered about all those things, he felt a hand on his cheek pulling his face towards a pair of beautiful lips.

“You know it’s a special day today…” Lunora said, while pressing the tips of her fingers together shyly. Then she enveloped his neck with her arms and kissed him passionately.

“What’s up? No, I’ve no idea what day even is today, let alone if there are any special events.” he replied, a bit confused. Why was she being so overly affectionate today? Not that he didn’t like it.

“Fufu, you really have no idea, then?” She whispered in his ear, then began to kiss his neck and nibble his ear lobes lightly.

“None.”

She giggled, and covered her mouth with her tiny hands. Cute! Seeing that he was looking at her, she blushed slightly and reached under the bed with a hand.

“Here.” She pushed the small wrapped box into his hands. He was still recovering from the sudden increase in body temperature, and almost did not realize what was happening.

Fenrir took it, a bit confused but with a hint of realization in his eyes. Soon after his eyes widened and lit up, his mouth curled upwards and a small tear appeared down his cheek.

“Happy birthday. I love you.” Lunora said, and thrust herself into her man’s open arms. She was fidgeting and giggling a bit, something had her excited. He took her in his embrace and held her tight. The tears now flowed freely, wetting her body from the shoulders all the way to the back. He saw her having goosebumps where the salty water tickled her bare skin.

“I… I… you didn’t have to! How did you know?” he asked between the sobs. He felt overwhelmed, but there was a warmth inside his chest that was spreading into his whole body. He felt good, like his head was swimming in a room full of fluff. With his fingers he caressed the small of her back, then reached down ticking her in her sensitive spots.

They laughed as they played together for a bit. Until suddenly they stopped and looked into each other’s eyes. Then they kissed again, and their bodies began to move on their own.

Unfortunately for the wrapped present, both of them now had other priorities. They jumped into the bed still in each other’s arms, and dove under the warmth and comfort of the sheets.

A solid two hours later, they emerged. They were panting, covered in sweat, but with smiles so wide and radiant they lit up the whole room.

“I think it’s time to open it.” The captain said. He had to admit he was rather curious as to what the girl had bought him. And all her fidgeting and acting impatient did nothing but increase this curiosity. The fact that she must have used his own money did not matter. In truth, the money was the ship’s or rather it was the spoils the ship had gotten from the adventurers. No matter.

It was her present. It was something she bought especially for him. Of course it was going to be special.

He unwrapped it as fast as he could, but at the same time he was being especially careful not to damage what was inside. Meanwhile the little elf was giggling as she watched her man concentrate on the task.

Inside the wrapping there was a small wooden box, and inside the box laid a small silver ring. The ring was resting on a nest of yellow feathers, which bent the light and projected iridescent shadows across the room. The ring itself was perfectly smooth and polished. The surface was spotless and shone almost with its own light.

There was a small engraving on the inside.

“Lunora & Fenrir

Together forever.”

The captain tried to hold back his tears. But he failed, and once again he found himself crying with his head buried between her woman’s breasts. She fidgeted awkwardly for a little bit, trying to remember what she had to do next. She walked a step back, and began to talk to herself in a small voice, but loud enough so that he could hear her.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I’ve read quite a bit, while we were on the ship. I think now I should do this.”

She went down on one knee, and held the small box in her hands. He could see the determination in her eyes as she mustered the courage to say the following sentence.

Will you marry me?” She said.

“Of course.”

***

Perhaps it was cheesy. Perhaps it was not exactly how it was supposed to go down, but they were undeniably happy. It was genuine, it was heartfelt. It was real. That was the only thing that mattered. They both had their rings now, and they were happy. Defiant took the liberty of relinquishing them for some due upgrades, so apparently now they were magical rings.

Then came the time for the other gift. Well, actually the right time for that had passed, since the two holed up in their room the whole day. But still, Defiant was determined to give her captain a gift too, so here they were.

“Ok, go ahead.” he said, holding out a hand. But the expected storage spell did not fire, and his hand did not get enveloped by black quantum mist.

Instead something else happened. He felt the world slow down, to a crawl. Everything was almost perfectly still, moving so slow it was imperceptible. He looked around and saw Lunora perfectly still, every single strand of her silver moonlight hair slowly moving with the wind. He saw the dust hovering in the air, the small droplets of water in his breath, the rays of light coming from the sun. He could see the people on the street, exactly 76 people in a fifty meters radius. 40 females and 36 males. They were perfectly still as stone statues… no, they were moving imperceptibly slow. But he could see each and every of those movements with a fluidity he never even dreamt of.

Then he felt his awareness expand. He was aware, he knew of everything in a fifty miles radius around a point. And that point? He knew very well where it was. It was his ship. Around it, every single blade of grass, every molecule of dust, the atmospheric pressure gradient, the irradiation from the sun, the value of the energy output from Defiant’s core… everything was within the reach of his awareness.

And then he had knowledge. Information. Data. Mountains of it, coming from seemingly nowhere and yet instantaneously available should he think of them. They felt not alien, not even new to him, now. As if they were always there, always a part of him. He had no idea how he even managed to live without so far. They were a part of him, of his mind and brain.

Had he lived as a mentally handicapped individual until now? He felt as if he had just recovered from extensive brain damage.

And he knew what happened. Still, he wanted to hear it directly from the culprit. And of course the entity responsible for this change knew it very well, since now they were one.

I’ve unified our minds. The machine intelligence said.

“What?” Fenrir replied, instinctively. It was true that now he was a part of this new human-machine magic powered hybrid, but still, the reaction was only natural.

It all started with me wanting to give you a gift. So I thought about how you would have liked to learn the content of the books instantly, and began to work on that. But soon I realized that one big bottleneck would have been the brain’s capacity to store precise information in vast quantities.

So I began to design an external magic storage for the mind. Something like a hard drive that you could access just as you access your normal memories. One thing led to another, and after a whole mountain of issues and curses I never thought I’d day as a ship AI… I decided the best option was to just strengthen our connection and fuse our minds together.

“Wow… just wow. No wonder you did not talk to me much the last few days. I’m still a bit disappointed you did not ask, but I know perfectly well why.”

I know too… now our minds are both two and one at the same time.

“This is nuts. Completely out there. Are we like a hive-mind now? A Gestalt consciousness?”

***

“Is everything okay?” Asked the elf, after seeing the strange look on her man’s face.

“Yeah, sorry, Defian’t gift came a bit unexpectedly.” he replied. She sighed in relief, he was still here. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she was a bit nervous about the whole ‘mind meld’ stuff the ship told her about. But in just one sentence she already knew nothing had really changed between them. He was still the usual, airheaded, Fenrir of always.

He began to walk, with her in tow. She was wondering where they were going, but immediately recognised the building they were facing. The adventurer’s guild.

The building was huge, as wide as three normal houses and built entirely out of stone. It was not tall, in fact it was no more than two stories high. The door was a huge slab of stone that looked impossible to move, and there were no windows. She disliked stone buildings, although she had gotten used to strange architecture after living on the ship for so long. She still longed for nature and trees, though, and the lack of green in this city really was depressing.

The inside, though, looked cosy and warm. The furniture was made out of ornate wood, there were books all around on various shelves, and even fake candles made with magic to give it a more familiar atmosphere. And, of course, there was the tavern a bit to the side.

Fenrir looked a bit out of place here, considering how naive and pure he always was. He reminded her of a little child walking into an adult only place. Of course she knew this was not the case, but the thought made her giggle a bit. After a momentary confusion on his part, he picked up the pace as if nothing happened. She loved those strange quirks he had, as they always reminded her how special he was.

They walked through several rows of tables to the sides, and the captain queued up to register. Or rather, to confirm that his stolen document worked. He was sweating a bit, guess he did not like the idea of using illegal documents. Did he fear being caught, or was he just uncomfortable because of his moral compass? Which, she realized, was a bit weird to say the least. He always went towards the most fair and just, but seemed not to care as long as stuff did not involve him directly. Like when he ordered the adventurers to be slaughtered only because they attacked the ship shields.

Perhaps she should not judge, considering what happened to the three men she lured in the dark alley.

The only exception to his rule of selfishness was, she knew, her. Because he put her above even his own well-being. That had to change, of course, and in time she wanted to try and get him to love himself a bit more.

“Wait here, I’ll do the queue.”

“Kay.” She nodded and went to sit at a table. There were a few people drinking and eating already, despite it still being early in the morning. Humans always loved to drink, although not as much as dwarves. She, being an elf and all, did not understand their love for ale and wine. Perhaps she would drink a good wine, if she was together with her man, in a room with a nice view, a candle and dinner for two… yeah, that would definitely be nice.

Meanwhile Fenrir managed to sign the two up as a party. They were B rank now. It was nice to skip the low levels like this.

“Wanna do some quests or stuff?” He asked. His voice was rather uncertain, like he was not convinced about what to do.

“You don’t seem convinced.”

“No, I’m not. The fact is, I don’t know what to do…”

She knew very well what he was talking about. She felt the same, actually. But she did not say anything, the silence was enough of an answer. They understood each other even without the need for words.

Suddenly she saw his head perk up, and he turned to face a table on the other side of the room. What was he doing? She wondered, because not even her elven ears managed to pick up the words the men over there were saying.

He looked interested, though, so she just waited until he was done listening in. He would explain it to her later, no doubt.