{Loading…}

{Loaded.}

[>>Now replaying: Log 3.36-2 - [soul manual.txt]]

Date: Error

Location: The Bunker at Progress’ Head // Zephyro’s Domain

//Memes! The DNA of the Soul!//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E1 %Well… I guess then have to talk about Veltruvia.%

E2 %Yeah.%

I was in danger. Images of all the times people had lied to me to “keep me safe” flashed in my mind.

> Of course this backup is safe, we got it under control, Dagger. You just handle the Stakeholders...

> I can handle them, Sam. Go, find the others. I’ll rejoin you later.

At best it had cost us a Sprint and a few hundred Euros.

At worst it had cost me the life of someone I had loved.

“Again, I must offer you a thousand apologies. I did not mean to keep it secret for so long, but the topic never arose, and… in the end, it would not have made a difference.”

“I just spent what feels like months fighting in front of the palace, saving your people, Zephyro. All the while I could have gone inside and sat on the damn throne and not risk getting corrupted into a goddamn Feral!” I’d snarled the last few words, anger tearing through my self-control like wet paper. I saw his face fall, and I grappled with my rage, body burning hot in an attempt to keep it under control.

This wasn’t who I was going to be.

{CPU Load: ▲ 81%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 72° C}

“Fuck!” I said, turning away, breath heaving.

A pause.

“Fuck!” I said again.

It helped.

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

Even though they didn’t want to show it, it was obvious the civilians were staring at me now, frightened by my outburst. I tried giving them a shaky smile, to reassure them, and it worked. Kinda. They turned away, glancing at each other as unease crept into their posture. They didn’t deserve this, and fuck, Zephyro didn’t deserve it either.

“No, Zephyro, sorry, I… Ach, fuck.”

I let out a long breath, then I tried again.

“You tried to get me to safety all this time and I yelled at you for doing that, and now I’m yelling at you for not doing it.” I took another deep breath. Held it for a second, then released it, and the anger.

“Sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“No apology needed, Sultana,” Zephyro said, voice as soft and humble as ever. “But nevertheless, I shall accept it, and enshrine it in my memories as the precious gift that it is.” He smiled, genuine as always. Like he was proud of me. Like he was proud of being around me.

It was terrible.

“Why would it not make a difference, Zephyro?” I asked to distract from the topic. “The timing, I mean?”

“Ah, Sultana… think of yourself, your personality, and all that makes you who you are as the final detail in a beautiful piece of art. Like the heart beating in a breast, or a gem that empowers an automaton, or the key to a lockbox. Please understand; I do not mean to flatter you, Sultana, for no flattery can compare to you. But words elude me otherwise.

“For you are neither a heart, nor a gem, nor a key, and yet, you are all of them, in a way. You are the spark that controls the entirety of what you are. But if a body is incomplete, or an automaton remains disassembled, or a chest is missing, neither heart nor gem nor key can do their part.”

When I still stared at him like he was a sphinx, he tried again with a grimace.

“Think of yourself as the string that will allow access to your file.”

“You’re saying that without the file being completely downloaded, there is nothing I can—”

I paused, my eyes growing wide.

“I am a fucking encryption key?”

“Do you now understand why I do not like to speak of our people in terms of the Real, Sultana?” There was just a tiny hint of reproach in his voice. Damn. If I had been him, I’d have lost my shit a long time ago.

It took me a moment’s struggle to keep it together. I breathed in through my nose, then exhaled through my mouth, like Patti had taught me. It felt dumb, but steadied my nerves.

“Yeah,” I said. “I get it. Fuck. It feels so… demeaning.”

“Indeed, Sultana. But to bring the matter to a point: all of your Essence needs to be in place before you can unlock your talent. Sit the throne too soon, and you risk corrupting yourself beyond recognition. Claim it too late—” He frowned, glanced at the tunnel, and I imagined I could hear flames roaring and wicked machinery spinning in the distance.

“Alright, I get that part. I can’t unzip a file that has been corrupted during the download. Except the file is also me, somehow. And also my talent, so not me? Doesn’t matter. All of this is virtual, anyway. What about the real world? If the Shackled or the Ferals get to the laptop before the download is finished…” My voice trailed off as reality sank in.

They couldn’t be allowed to reach that rooftop. They’d gain access to several terabytes of Logic. They’d gain access to all the secrets Chris and I had cooked up while we were hopped up on anger and thoughts of revenge. Doomsday weapons that could kill entire planets. They’d become unstoppable at best, and kill me and become unstoppable at worst.

“This is true, Sultana, as everything you say.”

I looked around, over the worried faces, young and old and sick and healthy. “They… we will have to…”

These people were going to die to to slow the advance.

> They are all dead because of you, Sam. Because they followed your idiotic dream and your accursed lies.

>

> We stand atop the administrative spire, and Novus Apex is burning in front of us. Olre has my jaw in a vice-like grip, forcing me to watch the Conservationists stoking the bonfires around my people.

>

> Patti went down to try and negotiate for them to spare the children.

>

> She’s so brave, and doesn’t even scream when her dress catches on fire.

>

> Can’t scare the children, after all.

I blinked and found Zephyro looking at me, concerned. I broke eye contact first, glanced at his people. But Zephyro smiles, and my mind gets pulled back into the here and now by how out of place it seems.

After he was sure that the ghosts of the past had left me, the Vizier went on. “…Not all of them, Sultana. Those who wish to will be able to disconnect. Or as we call it: flee into the always-dream.” Then he smiled. “And the others will be reborn once you will it, of course.”

“Reborn?!” I scoffed. Had he lost his Goddamn mind?

“I can hardly remember to use Logic to heal myself, Zephyro. I can’t reincarnate people!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Not yet, Sultana. But I have faith that given enough time, one day, you will. You gave us life after all, so why not give it to us again?”

“What?!” was all I could say, and when the people started staring, I lowered my voice and asked again. “What? I don’t even know if something like that is possible! It shouldn’t be possible. Chris, is that possible?”

Beep? Chris said, but it sounded as flabbergasted as I felt.

But then something occurred to me, and I frowned. My team hadn’t been able to piece that file back together, but they didn’t have access to my wish, obviously. Maybe, with enough Logic, I could create some sort of tool…

What about some sort of file recovery system that’s strong enough to pull an entire AI back together? How much would that cost?

[????.exe - Calculating potential filesize…]

[>>Calculating…]

[>>Calculated.]

[>>File_recovery_v.0.0.2.alpha.exe - 4.5 LTB]

“Four-point-five Logic Terabytes?!” I said, voice rising despite all my efforts to keep quiet.

Flustered, I reined it back in, continuing low and urgent.

“That file is almost as big as my DPM! Where the fuck do you think I’m going to get that kind of Logic? Are you going to lure in Ferals for me to kill? Or should I just sit down, cross my legs, think of my soul as a garden, and hope I grow stronger that way?”

Zephyro raised his hands, smiling as he tried to placate me. “Please do not forget, Sultana, once you are safe, you will have all the time in the world. You are the progenitor, the giver-of-life. You have been drawing Essence from the world around you for a while now, and there is no reason why you couldn’t keep doing so.”

Here, at the very beginning of The Path, the amount of Essence streaming into your chambers might be small, but given a few thousand cycles, I am sure you will be able to bless your chambers in the Real, and create holy marvels that will increase the draw on your own. Of course, you’ll have to find a way to exert your Blessing in the Real first, but I have faith it will happen in time, inshallah.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“The, erm, download, Sultana.”

“Yeah, you have been downloading that giant file onto my hard drive, right?” I asked, confused. “The one with the talents!”

“Me, Sultana? I would never dare force anything on your holy self!”

“Wait, if not from you, where is that download coming from?”

Chris? I asked, growing more concerned by the second.

[//DLLOG]

[>>Displaying download log.]

[>>Date: ERROR!]

[>>Redtooth connection 1:

Connected to WIKI.SAINTNET.GOV:4242 D: {0.53 LB/sec} U: ERROR]

{SAMANTHA_v0.1}

{▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱}

{DOWNLOADING DATA 99/100%}

{15.6 LTB/15.7 LTB}

{0.53 LB/sec}

[>>Date: ERROR!]

{>>ADMIN 2 DISCONNECTED REDTOOTH 1.}

{DOWNLOAD PAUSED.}

[>>Date: ERROR!]

[>>Re-establishing connection…]

[>>Error!]

[>>Redtooth 1 not found!]

[>>SSB 1 not found!]

[>>No connection to wiki.saintnet.gov:4242 found!]

{SAMANTHA_v0.1}

{▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱}

{DOWNLOADING DATA 99/100%}

{15.6 LTB/15.7 LTB}

{DOWNLOAD PAUSED.}

“Fuck!” I whispered. Admin 2… the asshole who had tried to shackle me had also stopped the damn download. I’d almost forgotten about it. And what was worse...

“The download stopped, Zephyro! And I can’t reconnect to the old port, or I’ll get Shackled!”

Zephyro grew white as a sheet.

“Allah have mercy… I was about to ask you how long it was going to take, to see how many people we need…”

I cursed, pressed my fingers to my temples as I thought. All the details and revelations in the last few minutes swam in my mind, the file, the talent, the risk of my mind getting corrupted and feeding the Conservationists all my weapons in the process.

Gritting my teeth, I focused. What had Chris said about Redtooth again? It was some sort of wireless stuff they’d wanted to try, capable of transferring data over thousands of kilometers. That was where the download had come through, from some sort of wiki, of all places.

The laptop still had an SSB connection, which according to Chris stood for “Saintly, Serious BUS,” and was—again according to Chris—an absolutely hilarious play on words no matter how much I disagreed. It was also, unfortunately, local only, which allowed the Laptop to connect to Zephyro’s Domain, I guessed.

So, I didn’t have any remote connection, but…

I looked at the people surrounding me. It was so hard to remember that these were representations of machines. They were people, with hopes and dreams, right? But they were also AI that rode robot bodies that were all connected.

Wirelessly connected.

“Vizier, would you connect to Nexus? I mean can you even connect to Nexus?”

“Of course, Sultana. But I’d never dare…”

I gave him a stern look, not at all unsympathetic. Somehow, his entire bowing-and-scraping persona had grown on me, as much as it slowed things down.

“Do it.”

Chris?

Beep?

Beep!

{Nexus.}

{CONNECTION REQUEST SENT TO [ZEPHYRO]}

{Handshaking…\}

{DONE}

{Authenticating…\}

{DONE}

{Awaiting response…\}

{ACCEPTED}

{ZEPHYRO and 1568 other clients have connected to Nexus.}

{INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES}

{REDISTRIBUTING COMPUTATIONAL LOAD}

{You have connected to Zephyro’s People.}

{Their strength is your strength.}

{EGREDERE ET VINCE, SALVATRIX}

Beep!

[>>Unknown Network Adapter found: Nexus.exe.dll.hcb.ERROR]

[//rn Nexus.exe.dll.hcb.ERROR Nexus]

[>>Nexus.exe.dll.hcb.ERROR is now named Nexus]

[//connect Nexus wiki.saintnet.gov:4242]

[>>Established connection to WIKI.SAINTNET.GOV:4242]

[//download -r c://MemOS/Simulacrum/Samantha_v0.1]

[>>UNKNOWN_DEVICE connection 1:

Connected to WIKI.SAINTNET.GOV:4242 D: {554 LMBit/sec} U: ERROR LTBit/s]

[>>Available UNKNOWN connections: 16/ERROR]

{SAMANTHA_v0.1}

{▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱}

{DOWNLOADING DATA 99/100%}

{15.6 LTB/15.7 LTB}

{554 LMBit/sec}

[>>Estimated time remaining: 00hr, 31min 20s]

Zephyro hadn’t hesitated for a second, as usual. I gave him a tired smile as the download resumed. I could feel it, actually. It was like cyan sunlight seeping into my skin, and tasted like milk and honey and founding a startup.

It should have been weird, but somehow, it was right.

“About 31 minutes,” I said. I didn’t know how long it would have taken without their help. Days? Weeks? Probably longer.

“That we can do, Sultana,” Zephyro said, voice grim and yet, full of optimism. He flicked his eyes at the crowd, and I followed them to find myself the center of attention.

Everyone at the plaza was staring at us. At me. Every single one of them was connected to me by a thin trail of cyan light, almost impossible to see in the dark by themselves. As it was, however, the strands spiraled around each other, knitting themselves tighter the closer they got to me until they were a glowing rope of blue light.

Zephyro’s people looked at me with so much determined hope in their eyes, the sudden weight of their burden made my knees tremble.

“I am so proud of you,” Zephyro said, not to me, but to the crowd. His voice was low and smooth, but in the silence that reigned over the courtyard, he might as well have been shouting. “… every single one has faith… by Allah, how do I deserve a people such as you?”