Chapter 10

MANIPULATION

PART 1

‘Dante…’ The name had a nice ring to it, yet was both simple and memorable. It was clear Mara had actually given it a lot of thought, even going so far as to consider the namesake’s intentions for inspiration, which caused something to stir deep within that the plasma-consciousness had never experienced before. Her answer just… Felt right.

Part of it wanted to be suspicious of that, but another part was… Happy? Or maybe even appreciative? Whatever these nudges were, they perplexed observation and urged decision- Apparent artifacts of its new ‘subconscious’; errors it would have to learn to account for.

“An excellent sssuggestion- Hereby: I, known as ‘The First Obelisk’, accept and adopt the name, ‘Dante’.”

Watching the mech as it considered her suggestion, Mara was rather surprised at how expressive its face had become. It was almost as easy to read as a child’s, but it was early days yet.

“I’m glad you like it Dante, it’s a good fit for you, and a blessing in disguise- You’ve just completed the Rite Of Self, becoming more than just a thing, you are now a self-sustaining concept, and ‘may now move about the cabin freely’.”

Joking with the metal-exoskeleton now known as Dante, Mara knew it wouldn’t get the reference, few would, but the analogy was fairly obvious. The Rite of Self served as a distinct threshold that truly opened up the world to one’s self, letting them roam past their natural barriers- A Rite usually reserved for long-lived monsters, not mechs, but Mara was no stranger to exceptions.

“The Rite Of Ssself? Explain. I am ‘free to move about’?”

“Mhm- As a ‘thing’ you were limited by the presence of mana because you didn’t have the glue that held you together, conceptually speaking. Once you extend too far from your source of perception, this world mutates the concepts of your creations, and that fundamentally changes their physical presence.”

‘Dante’ looked at the woman with all the perplexion it could muster with its artificial visage. The way she spoke of things was far from rational, but still somehow followable.

“Conceptually? Are you sssaying my drones fell to fault because I didn’t have a ‘concept of ssself’? And this world just… changesss things that lack that?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Finding you so early on, you were still in a bit of a grace period, sentient but ambiguous- Babies get it too, the defining line between a fetus and baby is when the parents start considering it as another person with a name- Though the there are a lot of people that would consider even having an ‘opinion’ on this topic rather taboo, and most ‘respectable’ academies love to avoid the subject, but the threshold exists regardless of their intentional obliviousness.”

“But… What caussses the mutations?”

“Ah- Well, it’s more like what stops the mutations… Consider this world a quantum soup- Only perception solidifies things, and that’s only while it persists. People are like bubbles in all that, and unobserved things run the risk of becoming ingredients in the larger stew. This world is large and old, its inhabitants only clinging to their bit of space, surrounded on all sides by what is generally called ‘The Wilds’- The area outside of what’s known, the gaps lost to time.”

Studying the woman in front of it, Dante was following so far, but something was bothering it- A curiosity that should have been far lower on its priorities given its mission objectives, but it couldn’t help but ask regardless.

“How do you know all thisss- Where did you learn it? And how did you know of my arrival? Tell me, wasss it you who hasss trapped me here?”

Stepping back, Mara held back a laugh, sounding almost like a scoff as she did so. Honestly though, she was just surprised how differently ‘Dante’ was acting from before- Now filled with an impatient curiosity that only a hyper-fixated child could muster.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Oh-hoh- Well that’s a loaded bunch of questions, but first off- No, as I just explained, I’ve had no hand in the restrictions you once faced. You’ve passed the first Rite, embraced the chaos in more ways than one, and now the world is your oyster, or penance, but that’s yours to find. Secondly, you know who I am. Just a ‘wandering adventurer’, I’ve just been at it longer than most, and as to where I’ve learned it all- Throw a dart at a map, you’ll hit something. Oh- And third, you gotta fix that lisp. Your S’s are getting stuck.”

Still glaring down at her, Dante could find no sense of falsehood in her words, but it was clear she was enjoying whatever linguistic games she was concocting to hide the whole truth.

If she was right about the Rite (ha), it was easy enough to check, the stealth drone it needed already mid-print in the hold as it considered the thought. The other bits though… Well, they were less necessary. If Mara didn’t want to share her past, that wasn’t an issue- For now.

Currently, it could accept that she was at least who she said she was, someone who had traveled far and wide, living a life long enough to amass a wide array of knowledge about this world. However, she failed to say how she knew to find it, but, if she wasn’t at fault for the slight against it in the first place, then that was rather inconsequential overall. As an information resource, she was more valuable to the mission as an ally than an enemy, so it would give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Yess-s. It is-s an issue, isssn’t it… One moment.”

Grasping its lower jaw, Dante gave it a good yank, dislodging the entire apparatus to get a visceral look at its artificial airway, where it immediately found the cause of the error- The fibrous threads between the larynx and tongue had warped, imparting excess tension, which was quickly fixed by stretching them out then shoving the whole apparatus back into place.

“Ah- A matter quick to resolve, but there’s always room for improvement… Better now though, no?”

Wide eyed, Mara knew it was a mechanical, but something about the fidelity in expressions had somewhat lulled her into a sense of facial familiarity, and watching someone suddenly rip their jaw off wasn’t something she’d been expecting.

“Uhmm… Yeah. Yeah, actually, that is.”

“Good. Then tell me, you promised assistance- Will you uphold your word?”

Raising an eyebrow, Mara was rather enjoying the trajectory Dante had chosen. The full prowess of a fresh Cabal consciousness was nothing to scoff at, language and politics were practically child’s play, and now compressed down into an ‘individual’? Maybe this pawn was more like a rook after all.

“Oh- You’re catching on quick with the phrasing. Yes, I always stand by my word, and I suppose we have a few hours… What ‘assistance’ can I provide for you Dante?”

“Mana. Explain how it is harnessed, how it is formed, and any flaws or restrictions involved therein.”

Raising an eyebrow at Dante’s far from subtle expression of interest, Mara strode over to the chair behind it, some parts still steaming from the leftover thermal stress.

“Mm. I could, but where’s the fun in freebies?”

Turning and plopping herself down on the chair, Mara crossed her legs and draped her forearms overtop, like a cat getting comfortable, and leaned forward, dropping all sense of levity in her expression.

“So… Tell me why you want to know so bad. Oh, and get yourself a new chair- If you really want to get into this, I’m not standing around the whole time.”

Doing one better, Dante had the ship materialize both a chair for itself and table between them, but paused before sitting down. The ensemble was missing something…

Glancing towards the slanted walls at the front of the ship, Dante had a nudge to do something that went completely against its cautionary mandates and turned a section of the walls into floor-to-ceiling windows, letting in a tinge of the red light that comes with the early hours of the morning.

Beyond, Mara turned to see the binary source of light far out in front of them, rather than far above because of the Obelisk’s orientation, casting deep shadows that cut far into the room.

Turning back as Dante sat down in their newly created chair, Mara still found herself rather impressed with the fidelity and control it was capable of expressing in its creations.

The plasma-consciousness of the first Obelisk, now known as Dante, was honestly handling blowing its own brains out better than she had. Admittedly, her circumstances were a bit different, the whole thing was practically an unintentional accident, but in contrast, Dante had taken to carving up its mental faculties like a sous-chef fileting a five star dish.

The mech in front of her held three different plasma cores, one to run the chassis, and two for the old brain, but even then, part of it was still in the ship itself- Like a pilot flying remote.

All together, the schisms actually seemed to be reinforcing its stability, as it prevented its most controversial addition from interfering with either the ship or its chassis’ capabilities.

Pleased with its minor additions to the room, Dante returned its focus to the organic sitting in its chair, the woman who liked to pretend she wasn’t her shadows, dancing around that which was visible.

The way she spoke, the questions she asked- They weren’t just guarded, they were curated. Phrased as they were, they made one think, approach the simple as if it were complex.

“Why? Before I would have said the mission. The first objective is to ‘Democratize Resources’, and mana appears to be a prime candidate. However, the question ‘why do I want to know so bad’ has a much different answer… One that I’m still working on I think, but for now, I can tell there’s something about it that I just need to know, like its calling to me.”