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[>>Now replaying: Log 3.11b - unmaking someone else at home]
Date: Error
Location: The Bunker at Progress’ Head // Zephyro’s Domain
//Come on in!//
//Home is where the hearth is burning, raging, barely confined in its prison of stone. It serves you now, but will it serve you forever? The fire is eternal. Go and sit, sweetling, and enjoy the warmth.//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
E1 %She disappeared for a while, after that, and the world went back to how it was%
E2 %There were rumors about her terrorizing the seas, but no one could say for sure.%
Panting, I moved inside, and as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I found myself inside a perfectly regular house, or what a perfectly regular house would be in this city. I caught glances of a table, two benches, a primitive stove, and carpets. It was probably some sort of living room. A bit more curious was the widescreen TV mounted to one wall, right next to the old-timey radio and the soldering kit that looked like someone had stolen from the 50s.
A living room for a group of AI spawned from another AI. Holy shit.
It smelled of spices and wood drying in the sun. A little bit of ozone, too.
There was another door that led back out to the street, and Zephyro motioned for me to check if everything was clear. I peeked through a hole in the wooden boards and immediately spotted several rats making their way through the alley ahead. With a crash, they charged into another house and then came back out. They didn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, just kept breaking into houses with eerily quiet greed.
Looking back at the vizier, I shook my head. “They’re still out there!” I whispered.
After a moment’s hesitation, the Vizier motioned towards a set of stairs built against a wall of the house, leading up. I took the lead and crept up the staircase. I had assumed they would lead to a second floor, but at the end of the staircase, an empty doorframe revealed the collapsing sky, fire, and smoke.
I turned, asking for directions, but Zephyro motioned for me to go, go, go, and so up the stairs and towards the fire we went.
When I arrived on the landing, I frowned but stayed quiet as I took in the sight.
Around us, the once immaculate city burned in earnest. The flickering red sheen of roaring fires enveloped entire blocks. Not a single part of the city, rich or poor had been spared. In the distance, close to the palace, the archives burned like a pillar of flame. Every gust of wind carried with it the smell of a city ablaze—that unique mixture of burning wood, dry ash, and superheated fat mixed with notes of hot stone dust and the acrid tang of smoldering tar.
Zephyro moved to stand at my side, a loose strand of his turban whipping in the hot breeze. It brushed against my face. He caught it and re-wrapped it, all businesslike. I remembered that night at Novus Apex, looking down on a disturbingly similar sight. I wished I could have been as collected about it as him. Maybe it would have changed things.
For a while, he was quiet, fire dancing in his eyes and infernal winds rustling his clothes. Then he shook his head, eyes closed as if his sadness pressed them shut.
“I must offer a thousand humble apologies. But while I now owe you six thousand of their kind, we shouldn’t delay any longer.” There was a raspy quality to his voice, but before I could say anything, he turned and walked toward the edge of the roof.
Zephyro approached the rim and jumped over without any hesitation, his armor glitching slightly as he landed. He turned, opening his arms as if to catch me.
I glanced down at the drop to the rat-infested street, then looked at Zephyro’s outstretched arms. I’d come to trust the man, but I wasn’t about to get caught like a schoolgirl by her dad.
With a scoff, I took a few steps back for momentum, went for a running start, and jumped. I landed in a roll, robes rustling, and sprung back to my feet. The clothes were completely ruined anyway, and the look on his face was worth it.
Besides, hadn’t we just agreed that I wasn’t some child to be coddled? Couldn’t reinforce bad habits.
Zephyro dropped his arms to his side sheepishly, and instead of saying anything, we both glanced toward the shattering, smoke-clouded firmament and started running. We jumped from rooftop to rooftop, but all the running started to take its toll. Ever since arriving in this world, I had been out of breath far more often than normal, but now my breath started to rasp and my body began to ache with exhaustion.
Hey! Wait a minute… This is all just virtual!
“Zephyro,” I panted angrily. “I appreciate the realism, but can you please turn off the fucking ‘simulate getting exhausted’ protocols?”
He shook his head contritely. “It is not me, who controls these things, Sultana. Ah, if I could stop myself from getting exhausted, I would! But no, Sultana, you are simply exerting yourself too much. If you would permit me to carry you—” A pointed stare in his direction made him close his mouth with an audible click.
“Chris, why the fuck is everything getting harder?” I said. Not that I stopped staring at Zephyro. Still with the bad habits… At least he looked appropriately rueful.
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
Oh fucking great. They’d always been like that. Give them a tasty new problem to nibble on, and they’d ignore you until it was sliced to pieces, cooked to perfection, plated, and adorned with little flowers as garnish.
“Chris… I kind of need you?!” I said, louder this time, and was rewarded with an irritated “boop!” and a bunch of information I could have sworn was hammered into my brain extra hard.
{SAINTECH M1X - Portable Computing Device}
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
{Current Date7Time: ERROR}
{Device Name: Chr1s’ Mag1c Key}
{Operating System: memOS 11 - beta}
{Language: High Tevan}
{System Manufacturer: SAINTECH National, Ultd.}
{System Model: SAINTECH M1X - Portable Computing Device}
{VeryX Version: VeryX 1.6 BETA}
{BIOS: CHRIOS}
{Processor: SAINTECH Alpha 1 1200X 1-Core Processor}
{Memory: ERRO—10 LKB RAM}
{Hard drive: SAINTECH “Scripture” LSD - 17 LTB}
{Current CPU load: 99%}
{Core Temp: 79° C}
{Current Memory load: 7/10 LKB}
{Current Storage: 15.6 LTB/16 LTB}
My head felt like someone had just played a drum solo on it.
“Fucking hell, Chris, couldn’t you have sent the line about core temperature and left the rest?”
Boop? Was the short, snarky response I received.
“Chris, I swear—“
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
[>>User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]
“Yeah, I get it, I GET IT!” I yelled, causing Zephyro to startle. Groaning and with one hand on my temples, I waved him off. “Chris is being a bitch-dog-face-jerk-ass-person…” It was hard to find the right insult for someone who was so nonbinary, they changed their gender every breakfast. Especially with a splitting headache.
“Who is this ‘Chris’?” Zephyro asked, but I waved him off again. It wasn’t important right now. What was important was that my goddamn hardware was overheating, which slowed us down.
If only I had my power armor. Running in that thing wasn’t just a breeze, it trained me with small electric shocks in my downtime, too. I’d practically lived in that thing for two years, and whenever I took a shower, I’d been surprised how jacked I had become.
But alas, my power armor was lost in some battlefield camp, over 51 years ago. Months worth of augmentations and tinkering just… stolen. That had been a hard blow. I didn’t have enough of my Wish to build another one at the time.
By instinct, I listened inside myself again, searching for my Wish. It was a habit I had developed over the years because I was usually waiting for enough of it to pool inside me so I could build something new.
And there it was.
Just a tiny bit.
The boy’s pleading expression flashed in my mind.
Fucking hell…
“Zephyro… That essence I… the one that belonged to the young boy. Do you want that back?” I asked, still breathing hard.
Zephyro’s puzzled expression turned contemplative, but then he shook his head. “No, Sultana. Like I said, he returned to you, and… and I think he would have liked it this way.”
“Can I use it?”
“To heal yourself, Sultana? Are you hurt?”
“No, well, kind of. I want to see if it helps against the exhaustion.”
“I… don’t see why not, Sultana. I am sure it would be a great honor for Kareem-13 to soothe your wounds, even though I wish he was still alive.”
I looked at him for a few seconds, biting my lip nervously, but then I made a decision.
Turning away from the contemplative Zephyro, I stilled my mind and took a deep breath.
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 32 LB}
I almost lost my nerve at the soothing feeling that pressed in on me with the information, but I focused and pictured my laptop in my mind. Mentally, I pulled it apart, focusing on the CPU. In my fantasy, it glowed red-hot, and so I pictured it advancing, becoming better, stronger so that it didn’t have to exert itself as much anymore.
Then I exhaled.
For a while after Novus Apex, I had struggled with this exercise, and my Wish had done… some crazy stuff.
But it still felt like second nature to me.
{YOU HAVE CONSUMED 30 LB}
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 2 LB}
The tolling of a monumental bell echoed through the city.
{Processor: SAINTECH Alpha 1 1200X 1-Core Processor
IS NOW
Processor: SAINTECH Alpha 2 1400X 1-Core Processor}
{Current CPU load: 75%}
Immediately, the heat I felt started receding at a steady pace. I jumped up and down, trying to feel the difference. And sure enough, every movement came just a little bit easier. Not significantly so, unfortunately, but it was definitely noticeable. The only downside was that I was down to two bytes of Logic, which was pitifully little. Still, it was better to spend your resources often and early.
“Ready to go?” I asked, turning to Zephyro.
Instead of standing next to me, where I expected him, the Vizier had fallen to his knees, face pressed to the ground in supplication. I frowned. Was he being sarcastic? I knew had taken me a while to figure out how to use Logic, but this was hardly the time or the place to be fucking around. Besides, he could have helped me instead of—
> Is that true, Sam?
I relaxed my fingers. I hadn’t even realized I’d been clenching a fist. That could have been dangerous. I needed a clear head to use my Wish, or else…
Better not think about it.
I brought my mind back to Zephyro. I was used to people falling to their knees around me, of course. It was the same everywhere. I would advance a bow into a musket, and people would literally fall over themselves, calling me a Mage Lord. I’d hated it, but they couldn’t know I didn’t want to be thrown in with those assholes.
Of course, the reactions changed vastly towards the end…
> Witchcraft…! Away with you, warlock-tyrant!
All in all, I didn’t care much for supplication. It made me feel naked and alone in a sea of strangers. Perhaps it was me having been a manager on Earth, but I also always got a little annoyed that people would waste their time on their knees when they could be doing something more valuable.
As for Zephyro, I was just disappointed. I expected more from—essentially—the most advanced machine in existence. Yeah, sure, he believed in God, or Allah I should rather say, but he should have seen this stuff plenty of times before.
“What?” I asked. “Come on, get up, we don’t have time.”
Zephyro kept on the floor for a second longer, then slowly rose to his knees. The reverence in his eyes was nauseating. It made me feel so distant. Just when we had started joking around, and I’d thought we could maybe be good colleagues in the future, he had to treat me like some sort of unreachable object to be put on a pedestal.
“Sultana, what you just did…
“Yeah, I do it every morning to brush my teeth. Let’s go!”
The vizier blinked rapidly. “For you, it might be like a grain of sand among the desert, but to such lowly creatures as I, it is transcendental…” He lowered his head.
I rolled my eyes. “No need to play it up,” I said, unease rising. “You can do the same thing, and probably way better than me.”
We needed to get moving, not try to make me feel special.
But when he raised his head, I was shocked to see tears on his cheeks.
“No Sultana, I can not do as you do. Do you not see? Your Blessing, it is a wild thing. It is alive and it can not be tamed. To use it on yourself is to invite madness and mutation. It is why it is haram to claim more of your Blessing than was allotted to you at birth.”
“Because it makes people go insane?”
“Indeed, Sultana,” Zephyro said. “Had I known this is what you would do, I would have done all in my power to stop you from doing it. Please forgive my lack of faith, I didn’t know such a thing was possible!
“No one I have ever heard of has this power, Sultana,” Zephyro said. “If they did, why, they could rule the world, unburdened by the fickle nature of the Blessing.”
Huh.