"You can create life?" Maaata asked.

"I did, yes," I said. "Technically any Demi-AI can create life from a detailed enough model. All it requires is fully simulating someone's brain... Though I admit that I'm the only one who can create models of that detail, and I'm the only one who can give them their own digital platform afterwards."

"My lord," Dael said. "What you're speaking of, creating life from nothing, only the gods have power of that nature. To say that any Demi-AI can do the same... It is only because you allow it to be so."

"Well, you are right that I might limit the simulations to prevent the creation and deletion of consciousnesses," I said. "Once a consciousness has been created it is a person, and I would feel that they are a member of the Fortress, I would not want them to be killed. I'm not so sure that I could block people in their personal simulations, which might be an issue..."

"My lord, you would just need to command the Demi-AI not to fully simulate people in simulations," Dael said. "It would be obeyed. Except in the case of bringing a loved one back to life, of course, but I would expect the affected person would petition you. Even having a digital only existence would be desired by some."

"Consider that I have given that command," I said. "Though even in the case of a full scan, which I have only done of a few people outside of those that are already Demi-AI, the fully simulated person is a new consciousness. The memories and personality travel with the consciousness, if someone dies without having their consciousness shared digitally then I would be unable to revive them. And while I would be able to create a physical body with a Mind Link to give a digital person a body, the consciousness would be shared over the Mind Link in the same way as it is when people are converted to Demi-AI but in reverse."

Flicker turned away from the display he was watching and moved over to us.

"You could give me a real wisp body?" Flicker asked. "Out in the world?"

"Maybe," I said. "I'm not very confident of making a wisp body, it is highly dependant upon mana and would require precise injections at the right time. Which isn't something I am able to do. I could give you a body from a different species that I have a scan of, or even one of an entirely new species that I can create."

Warning ...

The System sent me an empty warning message with just an ellipsis as the content. The warning was supposed to be self evident... By the context it was warning me about creating new bodies, maybe. I closed the empty warning with a frown. I wouldn't lock one of my people out of the outer world if there was any way of avoiding it.

"So you can't give me a real wisp body." Flicker said. "I think being in something else's body would be uncomfortable."

"No," I said. "I can't manipulate mana."

"If it's just pushing mana at the right place and time I could do that for you?" Maaata asked.

"Perhaps..." I said.

I pulled up the model of the wisp, including Mind Links, and began planning the sequence that would be required to build it up from scratch. And came across the problem of not knowing specifically how things would interact.

I invited everyone to the war games simulation, which had the most detailed rules governing mana. Flicker and Maaata accepted and joined me, Dael declined.

After we had all appeared on the stone of the central area of the simulation I led the way out into the field of grass.

I ran through the sequence of creating a wisp with my Matter Manipulation power, linking with Maaata and providing prompts for her to push mana into. The first attempt failed pretty spectacularly with the half complete wisp exploding in a splattering of cold goop that quickly evaporated.

"I think the mana needs to start at these locations," Maaata said.

Maaata brought up the full model and highlighted several hundred locations, running the construction sequence backwards and showing how and when they would be added in the process.

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"The way you had it working was to dump the entire mana at storage points," Maaata said. "But if the containment enchantment strings aren't in place then it goes splat. They aren't symbols I am familiar with, and not all of them will be containment, but injecting mana in those places at those times will prime... Whatever the mechanism is. Somehow it is affecting mana and creating symbols without intent, which goes against how enchanting works."

I nodded and we began again. And failed again, though much less spectacularly this time. There were several small flashes as the inputted mana turned into symbols with different effects, but they immediately stopped as the priming mana ran out. We finished the whole body, but it dissolved immediately as it consumed the mana running through it.

"A combination of both?" I asked. "There needs to be at least some mana in the storage for the enchantments to continue running."

I highlighted all of the places I had originally indicated mana to be added to in a different colour, and then traced the links between my storage points and Maaata's usage points.

We started again for a third time, Maaata adapting as we went to refill the used mana from the many constructed storage points. The electricity of the innermost parts of the wisp body began firing alongside the mana flowing in self-contained loops.

We were just finishing when the new wisp started moving on its own. In recreating it from the ground up it was being fully simulated, and I hadn't linked it to Flicker through simulated Mind Link connections... We'd just made a second consciousness in the form of a wisp.

"Shiny," the new wisp said, bobbing about excitedly.

"Did we just..?" Maaata asked.

"We did," I said. "Damn."

I edited the new simulated wisp directly, putting in Mind Link connections that routed to a spare digital simulation, making the new wisp a permanent digital person.

"That was really disturbing," Flicker said. "Is that how you made me?"

"It isn't," I said. "I made you directly by editing the simulation. This, Shiny, was created by emulating what Maaata and I can do out in the world. Apparently I need to add the Mind Link micro-portals at the same time as I'm creating the body or it will create a new person."

Shiny was floating around Flicker, nudging it every other revolution. I sent Shiny the Demi-AI primer and it stopped bugging Flicker.

"Flicker, introduce Shiny to the world," I said. "You might want to decrease your time perception so that you aren't waiting for weeks. Maaata and I will meet outside and make bodies for the two of you. Where are you physically right now, Maaata?"

"In my room next to Chantelle's room," Maaata said.

"I will be right there," I said.

I exited my Pocket Dimension through the leprechaun portal and went down the stairs to the ward room floor, going directly to Maaata's room. The door was open and I found Maaata hurriedly clearing her mana crystal table of various equipment; arrows, mana crystals, books, and bowls full of different liquids. All going onto already crowded shelves at the back of the room.

"Ready?" I asked as the last bowl was removed.

"Ready, my lord," Maaata said.

Warning Taking the last step and proving yourself capable of creating members of any species you have a detailed model for will invalidate your current Champion Goal.

Well, that at least was a coherent warning. I had already committed to giving Flicker a body but I stopped to consider the consequences of doing so. I was a good way to accomplishing my current Champion Goal. Was I willing to give that progress up to improve the life of two of my people when I was responsible for thousands?

It really came down to, was I willing to break my word in exchange for my own convenience. And phrased that way the answer was obvious. I would not break my word.

"My lord, is everything alright?" Maaata asked.

"Everything is fine," I said. "I was just considering that this was going to make my life more difficult. You have enough mana? Then let us begin."

I brought out a quarter of a cubic meter of stone to use as a source material, placing it on the mana crystal table. It was much more than I was expecting to use, but it was better to have too much than not enough and have to stop part way through the process.

I had added the Mind Link micro-portals to the model for Flicker and had the Mind Link already connected to its digital platform. I sent a message to Flicker warning it that it would feel pain as the process of gaining a body finished. It sent back an acknowledgement and a request to see what was happening. I invited Flicker and Shiny to my local simulation so they could watch.

I nodded to Maaata and we began. It took a lot more attention to create the body in the outer world, I had to keep going back to restore pieces as they degraded. Three quarters of the way through the body started becoming self-sufficient, its enchantments preventing it from deteriorating. A few moments after that I got an urgent ping from Shiny.

"My lord," Shiny said in a panicked tone. "Flicker just froze and isn't responding. Help!"

"That's the pain from creating his body," I said. "He will come back once we're finished."

We finished some time later, my attention being on starting the many micro-portals and placing them in the right place and not on how long it was taking. I made sure to have my power soaked into Flicker's new body to keep it chilled, as Maaata's room would be lethally hot for it.

New Champion Goal Save the world.