‘What is this?’ Goliath asked at the sight of a tiny girl trying to cling to the insubstantial form of a town interface assistant. The interface assistant ignored the question as the two guards raised their spears again.

‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ she tried to console the kid while patting her with holographic hands. ‘Look, we’ve got food now,’ at which the one guard gestured towards her with a crab apple. The girl ignored him and kept crying.

Goliath watched in horror. Was he supposed to do something about this? Dropping his hands, he shoved them into his pockets, encountering an unexpected shape. Candy. He had forgotten that piece was there. He lightly pushed the one remaining spear aside as he stepped forward and knelt in front of her.

‘Look, I’ve got candy,’ he said, gesturing towards the girl with the piece of candy. The crying paused as the kid eyed him with distrust.

‘It’s okay, you can have it.’

‘Yes, look, it’s candy!’ The interface assistant repeated. ‘Look, Mirabelle, candy!’

The kid hesitantly reached out and took the piece. She tried a little bit and then smiled.

‘Candy!’ she said, biting into it.

Goliath sat down in relief and then looked at the interface assistant.

‘What is this? Where are her parents? These two decrepit wheelers couldn’t protect her from a rabid mouse!’

‘Ah. The child’s parents went out. Don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.’ A momentary glitch ran through her image. ‘You may go now.’

‘Her parents left her with you lot?’ Goliath didn’t know much about children, but it seemed unlikely that a parent would leave their child behind like this.

‘They had to go. Wolves.’ Her image fazed again.

‘Oh, the wolf faction,’ Goliath sighed. Even when those people were supposed to be done causing trouble, they just kept going.

‘I hadn’t expected them this far to the west. I suppose I’d better go and help her parents. Those savages are dangerous.’

‘Her parents will prevail,’ the interface assistant assured him, her voice slightly garbling as a more prolonged disruption fizzled through her projection. ‘They are big, strong warriors. You may leave now.’

‘Leave? No leave, more candy,’ the girl spoke. Then added, ‘Pwease.’

‘Uh, sorry kid. No more candy,’

It was the wrong answer. The kid’s eyes began to water as her mouth twisted.

‘Oh, no, no, no, look here, Mirabelle! Apples! Tasty, tasty!’ The apple automaton silently offered the crab apple again.

The kid looked doubtfully at it.

‘Skin,’ she pointed out.

‘Yes, the skin is the healthiest part, containing numerous beneficial elements,’ the assistant supplied.

‘No skin.’

‘Let me assist.’

Goliath took the apple from the automaton and skinned and quartered it.

‘Thank you, traveller. You may go now.’

Something still niggled in his mind, though.

‘Assistant, are you sure you are in good working order?’

‘Yes. I am in good order. I checked.’ Her image briefly flickered once more.

Goliath shook his head. If the founder trusted her enough to leave the child here, who was he to question it? None of his business.

‘Okay then. Goodbye assistant. Goodbye girl.’ He waved awkwardly as he turned around and walked out the door.

<>

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However, the situation niggled at the back of Goliath’s mind as he walked to the front door. Something felt off. Why hadn’t the parents left the girl some good food? But he supposed that may be the very reason for going out, aside from dealing with the wolf faction. But there was something else. He replayed the encounter as he walked. What was it that bothered him? Aside from the glitching assistant, the two antiquated automatons, and the girl all alone?

Deep in thought, he stepped through the front door and crashed through the porch, where the rotten planks predictably gave way under his weight. The wind spirit whooshed over him.

‘Great. Now I’ve fallen through the porch too. Does it make you happy?’

No happy. Look. Flicker, flicker, flicker, the wind whispered.

Goliath grunted as he pushed himself up, carefully checking the remaining planks before putting his weight on it. Then he stopped. Yes, flicker, flicker indeed. That’s it. He’s seen it before. He turned around and walked back through the front door.

<>

‘No, bad apple!’

‘It is real good, I guarantee it. Please eat; you need the food, Foun …’ the assistant’s voice became silent as Goliath re-entered the room, and she and the girl stared at him.

‘Assistant, please display the incident log for the last 24 hours,’ Goliath demanded, recalling the action command from when he was a founder.

‘Request denied; requester lacks authority,’ she responded, sounding like a standard assistant for once.

Goliath thought a bit. Yes, as a visitor, he would lack authority. What would he have a right to see? He could at least find the name of the founder.

‘Assistant, please display the list of inhabitants.’

The assistant’s image pulled skew as flickers ran through her.

‘Request denied; requester lacks authority,’ she garbled slowly, struggling with the words.

‘No. This is open information to inhabitants and guests. Display list of inhabitants.’

‘Noooooo,’ she slurred as a blurry information box displayed and slowly resolved into two lines of text.

Town inhabitants

Mirabelle

Goliath looked at the assistant in shock.

‘There is only one inhabitant.’

‘No, that is incorrect,’ the assistant countered, glitching so severely that he could barely understand her words. ‘The requester only has guest privileges and is thus not entitled to a full list.’

‘Stop the deception; you are injuring yourself. Just let it go and display your incident log. What happened to her parents?’

The assistant’s image stabilised as the incident log finally displayed.

Goliath waved the log away.

‘Assistant, no more subterfuge is necessary. You’ve been forced to operate outside your system parameters, which placed your entire being under strain. This is causing glitches.’

‘No more subterfuge necessary,’ she affirmed her image becoming clear again. ‘The Founder needs help. There is no one but me. I must provide.’

‘Where are her parents?’

‘Unknown.’

‘But, she cannot be the Founder! She is a child!’

‘She activated the console stone. She is the Founder.’

He shook his head, staring at the kid dumbfounded. The village Founder was squeezing crab apple slices, watching the pulp push between her fingers and licking juice from her fists. The assistant did not correct her. He supposed that was the job of a human adult.

This child could never fill the role of a founder, but what could be done about it? He knew the Foundership could be passed on if a founder passed away or willingly transferred it to another. Goliath stared at the console stone. Mirabelle didn’t even know what she had. How does one persuade someone else to pass something along if they had no idea what it was, nor that they owned that unknown thing? And since the other option was unthinkable, how could he persuade her to transfer to anybody?

Would you be a better steward this time? the air whispered inside the room. Steward of what? This village already had a founder, and it wasn’t him. This was too much. He once had a town; he then lost that town, and he gave himself to the army. And now what? This was supposed to be his retirement. He hated wind spirits. He got up and stomped out of the room to bang his head on the corridor wall. After a while, a throat cleared. The assistant stood there with Mirabelle by her side. Mirabelle was watching him with big eyes.

‘Yes, assistant?’ he said. He was so tired. Tired of this and everything.

‘My name is Tia, and it’s nice to meet you.’ She held out her hand. She had a name? He had never met an assistant that could function like this. She should have self-destructed under the stress of all the new protocols her system had been creating. Subterfuge, no less. He had once ordered his previous assistant to bend the truth slightly and almost lost his village.

He sighed and held out his hand to her insubstantial one. ‘My name is Goliath. Nice to meet you. I am a soldier.’

‘I know. Strangers are approaching the village, soldier Goliath.’

A true leader serves, the wind whispered.

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