WSP 048
False Mind
“...and that should take care of the Rigid Plague,” Tenrayce concluded, sitting down in front of the blackboard she had just been writing on. She looked out over the room to judge reactions. Wyett was barely responsive, as usual, but Hyrii and Via both had hopeful looks on their faces. Ursulii was impossible to read. And as for Memory… well, she’d just have to wait for Memory to say something.
“I think it will work,” Memory said. “My only complaint is trusting Mikarol with so much.”
“This will end one of our major enemies for good and the show of trust will greatly increase the strength of our alliance,” Tenrayce pointed out.
“If all goes according to plan,” Via said, wringing her hands. “Plans don’t seem to be working out lately…”
Hyrii patted Via on the back. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry. If this doesn’t work we can just try something else.”
“Until they try something on us and it works…” Via shivered. “I’m… I’m sorry, I’m just nervous. Can we really… get a real win finally?”
“We need to if we are to survive,” the Memory said. “There are currently too many foes.”
“That’s what’s making me nervous.” Via sighed, shaking her head. “But there’s not much I can do about it, I suppose.”
“You are taking more of an interest in these plans than I expected,” Tenrayce admitted.
“Oh, uh, well…”
“It’s a good thing, Via. Wyett and I can’t handle everything.”
Via glanced at Wyett. He can’t handle anything. “Thanks, Tenii.”
“Anyway, I think that’s all we need to discuss. Don’t you have lunch today, Via?”
“Yeah, I do!” Via stood up, a big smile coming across her face. “Sure you can’t make it, Tenii?”
Tenrayce shook her head. “Have to make sure everything pans out right, unfortunately.”
“Won’t even bother asking Wyett… Hyrii?”
Hyrii shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’d like to be by Wyett’s side today, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh… okay.” Via kept up her smile. “Well, it’ll still be a treat for me, anyway. I get to show Blue that cool new restaurant!”
“It is quite a strange place,” Memory said. “I have observed it through many eyes. Who knew rigids could be chefs for non-rigids?”
“It’s certainly quite the gimmick,” Tenrayce added. “I suppose it’s another thing we’ve gotten out of the alliance with the Western Ch’eni’tho. …It still bothers me that the Rigid Plague hasn’t attacked them directly since we arrived. Even if it’s trying to avoid a direct conflict, surely the resources available for it are worth it…”
“I would wait for the right time,” Memory said. “When I needed a boost to resources to launch my final attack.”
“Still…” Tenrayce shook her head. “Oh well, I’ll be thinking about it until the Rigid Plague is defeated. With luck, we can do it without it realizing what’s happening.”
With that, they all dispersed and Via set out for her lunch.
~~~
“This is the place!” Via said, gesturing at a cubical building made out of metal that had a helix spiraling out of the top for decoration. “Western Ch’eni’tho culture right here in Axiom!”
Blue clicked her tongue. “Huh… was this really what it looked like, Jeh?”
Jeh was currently on Blue’s back, scratching her chin. “They didn’t really like cubes all that much, but the helix is certainly right.”
“Cubes are easy to build,” Blue pointed out.
“True… we’ll have to ask about it. I am curious about the food, they didn’t really cook for us while we were there, they just kept organic food stores just in case.”
Via nodded. “Apparently, the cuisine is actually from deeper in the Shinelands than their actual city, an oasis of sorts.”
“So it might be an entirely new experience!” Jeh grinned. “All right, let’s go in!”
The three of them walked right in. Of course, Via already had a reservation and as the princess she got the best seat in the house; the table was not only in the center, but also on a raised platform above a hole meant to represent the giant hole the Western Ch’eni’tho dug in their city. This hole was covered in glass and wasn’t very deep, though.
“This just makes me want to see the real hole again,” Jeh said, glancing over the edge of her seat. “This one doesn’t compare at all.”
“They’re doing their best,” Via huffed.
“Eh…” Jeh glanced around at the rest of the restaurant, which was mostly just metal tables and chairs set up haphazardly. “Not really.”
“Well, the food is good.”
A Ch’eni’tho walked out of a large set of double doors, a notebook slinked around one of her spike legs. “Query: order?”
Blue paled. “I, uh, didn’t look at the menu yet…”
Via chuckled. “They’re always fast like this. Fortunately, I already know what to order. Three plates of foxfire.”
“Affirmative.” The Ch’eni’tho scribbled something on the pad by cutting into it with one of her other legs, scampering back into the double doors.
“At least it’s a real Ch’eni’tho,” Jeh said.
“Are all of them so emotionless?” Blue asked.
“They have emotions. Their voices just can’t carry them. Ask her a question about her home when she comes back, I’m sure she’d be willing to share.”
Via frowned. “Well… Chart isn’t exactly very amiable.”
“Really?” Jeh frowned. “Why make a restaurant then?”
“Not sure,” Via said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s all she could think of to get proper work? She doesn’t talk much about herself or her past, even when I ask.”
“Hmm… maybe I, the great Ch’eni’tho whisperer, can get through to her!”
“Suuuure,” Blue said, rolling her eyes.
“So, Blue,” Via said, leaning back. “I’m curious, why’d Jeh accompany you on this trip?”
“I asked,” Jeh said, grinning.
Blue nodded. “I just wanted to get here, give the talk about the space station modules, and leave. But Jeh didn’t really get to explore the big city when we were last here together, so I figured we might as well turn this into a vacation. We have been cooped up in that cabin all winter.”
“Soooo boring…” Jeh groaned.
“Hey, we played with you a lot this time!”
“It was still winter! There wasn’t even an attack this time!” Jeh paused. “Okay, so there was, but Keller got to it so fast we didn’t even know.”
“An attack?” Via asked.
“Rigid Plague again,” Blue said. “Keller thinks they were trying to blow up the laboratory. They’d apparently been digging a tunnel under the ground to get in without being noticed. Unfortunately for them…”
“They ran into one of our secret underground testing areas!” Jeh laughed.
“You have those?” Via asked.
Jeh grinned. “Oh you bet! It was Big G’s idea, a way to test mining stuff as well as explosions that don’t throw ash all over Willow Hollow. Apparently, by the time Keller arrived the wizards had already almost taken care of the problem!”
“I do wonder why the Rigid Plague is so obsessed with the space program, of all things…”
Blue frowned. “It took a bit for us to figure that out as well, but Suro pointed out that Margaret was able to do a lot of damage to the…” Blue glanced around at the other restaurant patrons around them. “...Thing with a Skyseed. Since the Rigid Plague can’t use magic, it can’t make its own space program no matter how hard it tries, and so it’s a glaring weakness.” Blue sighed. “And so our little silly space project becomes integral in a military strategy…”
“I think using spaceships to fight is cool,” Jeh said. “I kinda wish I got to fly into that demon’s face.” Jeh quickly slammed her hand over her mouth. “Sorry, right, don’t mention them…”
“I don’t think anyone heard,” Via said, smiling warmly.
Blue raised an eyebrow. “Jeh, let me see if I’m getting you here. You’re jealous of Margaret?”
“A little! I’ve never gotten to do a space battle!”
“Careful what you wish for…”
“It sounds so awesome though!”
“Technically you did lose a space battle.”
Jeh crossed her arms and let out a huff. “Giant space lasers shot at a distance are cheating.”
“Pretty sure you cheat just by existing,” Via pointed out.
“Oh ha-hah, right.”
At this point, the food arrived. “Your order.” Chart abruptly slammed three plates on the table in front of them. The food on top was unlike anything Blue or Jeh had ever seen. Each plate had several white rice-ball-like things that were shaped into simplified fox heads, focusing on the giant ears. Each little head appeared to be on fire, but not only were they not burning, it wasn’t even hot.
Via stabbed one with a pointy metallic utensil and put it in her mouth. “Dig in!”
“Eat… fire…?” Blue stared at it in disbelief.
“Come on Blue!” Jeh said with a full mouth. “It’s great!”
Blue levitated one of the metal spikes into the air. She stabbed the head and eyed it carefully. Then she licked it. No burning. No warmth.
But it tasted like a fruit cocktail with a hint of smoke to it.
“Goodness…” Blue said, taking an actual bite. “What kind of flavor even is this…?”
“Never had anything like this in the Shinelands!” Jeh said with a big grin. “Wow, what a find, Via!”
“Told you I knew what to order,” Via said with a grin. “Dig in!”
They dug right in, snarfing and chowing down on as many of the heads as they could. Jeh in particular shoved a truly absurd number of them into her mouth.
“That tastes… so good…” Jeh said, leaning back in her chair and letting out a satisfied sigh. “Thanks… Via…”
“You’re welcome!”
Jeh let out a very loud snore.
“Geez, I think she may have overdone it…” Via laughed.
“That’s unusual…” Blue said, frowning. “She usually doesn’t do that. These aren’t… that filling…” Blue let out a big yawn.
Via’s smile slowly began to drain from her face. She suddenly stood bolt upright. “Blue, fight it, you’ve been drugged!”
“Via… get out of… here…” Blue slumped forward into her plate.
Via jumped over to Blue and pulled her out of her chair. With effort, she grabbed Jeh with her other arm. A year ago Via would not have had anywhere close to the amount of strength to move even Blue, but now… well, Grandma had been training her, after all.
Elsewhere in the restaurant, other patrons were falling asleep. Including ones Via knew were her undercover guards. Some of them had been instructed not to eat, is it in the air?
All of the windows to the restaurant suddenly forced themselves shut. The clicking sound of locks activating filled the space.
Via tapped into some Purple she had hidden in her flamboyant hair, casting light on the scene. A few of her guards were still standing, likely those who had gone through the same toxin-resistance regiment she had gone through.
“Break down the door!” she ordered them.
They listened, running to the front door. The moment they got close, however, an explosion went off beneath their feet, sending them flying. Via saw blood splatter on the walls.
There will come a day where you have to defend yourself.
Via had to drop Jeh, using her now free hand to pull out a firearm. Seeing no obvious targets, she started unloading it on the front door. Her firearm was by no means a normal one, it was of the finest make and had the most cutting-edge enchantments on the bullets. The door was blown clean off its hinges, allowing the sun to come in from outside.
She ran for it. She had to leave Jeh on the ground, but Jeh would be fine, she needed to get herself and blue out of there…
A plane of metal shot out of the floor, blocking the recently exposed exit.
Via ground her teeth, pointing her firearm at it again.
She heard something behind her.
She whirled around and unloaded the bullet right into Chart, shattering one of her sparking globes and removing a leg. The pain did not deter Chart, she moved forward, blade angling toward Via’s head. The flat of the blade.
Focus. Grandma told you how to avoid being knocked out. Mind over matter, focus on something that matters. She fixated on the prone form of Jeh on the ground. Look at her face. Look at it. That’s a child. That could be any child. There are so many other people in here. Focus!
The flat of the blade hit Via in the side of the head.
She was sent scrambling to the side, dropping Blue.
But she didn’t go down. She stood up and pointed her firearm right at Chart. “Eat this!”
Chart lunged.
Via fired.
Two of Chart’s limbs went flying.
“Gotcha!”
The rest of Chart’s limbs hit Via in the side, throwing her to the ground. The rigid had somehow used Via’s own attack to add extra momentum to her assault, throwing Via all the way to the center of the restaurant.
Via stood up. “Just because you have clever tactics doesn’t mean I’m going down!”
The glass floor slid out from underneath her and she fell into the pit.
“Negative,” Chart said. “We prepared too well for every eventuality. Even you being unexpectedly resistant to toxins was unable to stop this.”
Via fired her gun in the hole. The explosion hit her and sent tons of smoke into her lungs. She started coughing profusely. “You’ll pay for this!”
“We will pay if we do not.”
Blue and Jeh were dumped into the hole on top of Via, pressing her to the ground.
“You… you better not hurt anyone, you hear me?”
“Too late.”
~~~
Tenrayce, for once, didn’t have her head in a book. She wasn’t even taking notes. She wasn’t even brutally questioning people. She just sat in her chair next to Wyett’s throne, listening to the report being given by the captain of the guard. Wyett and Hyrii were also present. Wyett was looking at the ground. Hyrii had stopped trying to hide her tears long ago.
“...The restaurant floated into the air after this,” the guard reported, refusing to get up from his kneeling position. “Our dragon riders intercepted it and captured it. Inside were most of the patrons, out cold due to a mixture of sleep toxins. All employees of the restaurant were located. One was very badly damaged, clearly by Princess Via’s custom firearm. Princess Via, Jeh, and Blue were nowhere to be found.”
“The flying restaurant was just a ploy…” Tenrayce said, tightening her fists. “They took their quarry and ran through some other method…”
“We found evidence of a collapsed tunnel underground. We are trying to trace it.”
“It’ll be too slow,” Tenrayce grunted. “How did we not notice?”
“The inspection records for the building were clean. There was no indication of a tunnel or any unusual constructions at the time it was created. Especially not something that would permit for the building to lock down and start flying.”
“They had to add all those things in secret somehow…”
“This has to have been planned for a long, long time. The remains of Chert indicate that she was completely mute and had been for several years. And yet many people report her having spoken to them directly.”
“The Rigid Plague can’t control voices…”
“You misunderstand me, princess. Her equivalent to vocal cords were mutilated. She should never have been able to make any noises. Something similar was attached next to them that clearly did not belong.”
“A perfect puppet to speak from. No way for her to ruin anything… and nonmagical propulsion methods…” Tenrayce slammed her fist into her chair. “The plague planned this trap out far in advance. It analyzed our behaviors and waited for the opportune moment… or… or it waited for when it had to. Is there any way it knew of our plans…?”
“Regardless,” Wyett said, voice almost breathless. “We can’t attack now. Not while it has her.”
“...I know,” Tenrayce said. It is… very good that it took both Via and Blue. I could see myself considering sacrificing one. But… not two, no, not two. Well played, plague, well played…
“What is our plan to retrieve them?” Wyett asked.
“I do not currently have one,” Tenrayce said. “Naturally, word has already been sent to our contingent at the Western Ch’eni’tho to try to intercept any and all rigids, but that’s not going to work. We’re going to have to create some kind of strike force, and unlike our enemy, we can’t just waltz in and try to fool them…”
“Tenrayce. I need you to do something.”
“Do you have any bright ideas?”
“No.” Wyett hung his head. “That’s why I need you to do it.”
Tenrayce closed her eyes and sighed. “I know. I know. We… we’ll figure something out.”
~~~
My head feels so foggy…
There was a sharp feeling in Jeh’s arm.
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she was sweating all over. She sat up and let out a scream for no reason she could discern, it just felt like she had to. Everything was trembling.
Blue and Via had similar responses. Blue didn’t scream, but she did sit bolt upright on Jeh’s left, breathing heavily. On Jeh’s right, Via had a significantly worse reaction, screaming and clawing at her face frantically.
Why is my heart racing…? Jeh wondered, putting her hand to her chest and trying to breathe calmly—failing miserably. It was like her body was forcing her to breathe. She felt the need to punch something. She punched the ground next to her.
It was metallic. Smooth. Featureless. Dark. There was only faint lighting from slats in the ceiling, illuminating copious quantities of dust floating through the air.
Via let out a panicked whine and started clawing at her dress.
“Via, calm down!” Blue shouted.
Jeh turned to stare at Blue vacantly. Calm…? How can she be…. Why am I not?
“We’re gonna die…” Via whimpered, falling flat on her back. Her eyes were wide open and her pupils were far too small to be natural. “We’re gonna die…”
“We are not gonna die! If whatever this was wanted us dead, we’d be dead already!”
Not me… Jeh thought, clenching and unclenching her fists.
“Dead… already…” Via started nervously laughing. “I… I thought I was resistant to… chemicals…”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about but calm down! We need to… assess the situation and… uh…” Blue swallowed loudly. “Okay, Jeh, you…”
“I’m… okay,” Jeh said, letting out a shaky breath. “I’m… something’s not normal.”
“We’ve been given some chemical, clearly…” Blue let out a sharp breath. “I appear to be taking it the best.”
“Y-yeah…” Jeh clenched and unclenched her fists, taking a few deep breaths that finally managed to go down without feeling like she was trembling the whole way. “What even…?”
“I’m supposed to be fine… I’m supposed to be fine…” Via said, holding her hands to her chest. She was no longer clawing herself, but Jeh finally noticed that she had broken the skin on her face. Crimson was slowly dripping down her porcelain chin and onto her fancy outfit. “What is… going on… I was fine, I handled the situation…”
“You did great, Via, I’m sure you did. You lasted longer than us!”
“I fought… so hard… but I was just… too stupid…”
“They were clearly prepared for us. And they’ve done something to us…”
“Y-yeah… yeah… yeah…” Via started breathing in and out. “Don’t hyperventilate… mind over matter… remember… focus…” She suddenly looked up and stared right at Jeh with wild eyes. “Focus.”
“Um…”
“I-I’m using you to focus. O-okay?”
“S-sure…” Jeh stammered.
“Focus… focus…” While the wild look in Via’s face didn’t go away, her haggard breathing slowed and leveled out, and her trembling began to abate. “Th-thank you, Jeh.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Okay, now…” Blue started looking around. “Where are we?”
“Metal box,” Jeh said.
“Clearly.” Blue lit her horn gently, casting the room in light. It was rectangular, with no windows or doors, the only feature at all being the slats in the ceiling. The metal was clearly old, with several sections that were rusting and showed signs of repairs with welding.
“Well, that’s the way out,” Jeh said, pointing at the slats. “Blue, lift me up.”
Blue did as asked, levitating Jeh to the ceiling. Jeh grabbed hold of the metal slats. She was immediately shocked by lightning.
Jeh grinned. “Oh, is pain the only defense you have? How silly.” Even though lightning was coursing through her arms and she had significantly reduced motor control, she could still twist her torso around. The metal slats were not affixed very well to the ceiling, so she tore them right out, making a proper hole. “Hah!” She poked her head through the hole.
A metallic spike immediately shot out of nowhere, piercing her skull between the eyes and throwing her all the way back down to where Blue and Via were.
“Jeh!” Via shouted.
Blue removed the spike from Jeh’s head. “Jeh, did you see anything?”
“Nope…” Jeh grumbled, rubbing her head where the spike had been. “Looks like our captor isn’t stupid.”
“Well… they did have to catch us…”
“I…” Via put her hand to her chest. “I forgot you were immortal for a second…”
“Don’t worry about me!” Jeh gave her a thumbs up. “They can’t do anything!”
The three of them heard a whirring sound from somewhere above them. A flat, rectangular object descended from the hole Jeh had just made, attached to something far above them by a long metal pipe. The object appeared to simply be glowing red at first, but on closer inspection, it became clear that lots of red symbols were rapidly flashing on it in a grid pattern.
“Numbers…?” Blue wondered.
“It’s like Xanava’s face…” Jeh said. “Are you a flauxi?”
“Flauxi…” Via breathed. “...Are you the Rigid Plague?”
A section in the middle of the red symbols was cleared out, replaced with a black area. In its place, words were written in Karli.
I AM NOT A FLAUXI. YOU CALL US THE RIGID PLAGUE. I AM URIAH, CENTRAL LANGUAGE MODEL OF HENDELS, CODED BY VULFRIE KANDISH BY WAY OF INTELLIYIN INCORPORATED.
Via clenched her fist and stood up. “A-am I correct in assuming we are hostages, Uriah?”
THAT IS INDEED CORRECT. YOU ARE HOSTAGES KEPT AS INSURANCE AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF KROAN, MIKAROL EMPIRE, AND DESCENT ALLIANCE. YOU HAVE FURTHER USE AS SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND ADVANCEMENT.
“What are the terms you will be giving for my release?”
NONE. YOU WILL REMAIN HERE UNTIL THE THREAT HAS PASSED OR YOU DIE.
Via put her hands behind her back and took in a sharp breath, clearly trying to gain composure. “I doubt the Crown will accept those terms.”
WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF TELLING THEM THE TERMS. THEY KNOW WE HAVE YOU. THAT IS SUFFICIENT.
“What I mean is that they will not accept this state of affairs for long.”
WE PREDICTED AS MUCH.
“S-surely you want to avoid the repercussions?”
INCORRECT. WE HAVE CALCULATED THEM OUT. WE HAVE ANSWERED YOUR QUESTIONS. YOU WILL NOW ANSWER OURS.
“Why are you talking in ‘we’ all the time?” Jeh frowned. “You used ‘I’ earlier…”
I, URIAH AND WE, THE COLLECTIVE, ARE DISTINCT.
“Hah, got you to answer another question.”
AS A CENTRAL LANGUAGE MODEL, IT IS MY DUTY TO ANSWER. AS THE CENTER OF THE COLLECTIVE, MY DUTY IS OUR DUTY. YOUR INFORMATION GATHERING IS IRRELEVANT, MINE IS NOT.
Jeh crossed her arms. “Fine.”
PRINCESS VIA KROAN. MY QUESTION IS SIMPLE. WHAT ARE THE DETAILS OF THE PLAN AGAINST ME?
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Via closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
WE KNOW ONE EXISTS. THE FLIGHT PATTERNS AND POLITICAL MANEUVERS ARE INDICATIVE. THERE IS A REASON WE ACTED TO TAKE YOU NOW RATHER THAN EARLIER OR LATER.
“Guess I wasn’t informed then.”
YOUR DECEPTION IS EVIDENT.
Via shrugged. “If you don’t believe that I don’t know anything, oh well. Guess you’ll just have to t-torture me or something.”
“Via!” Blue gasped.
“Th-this is what I was trained for, Blue,” Via said, swallowing hard.
YOUR RESOLVE WILL LIKELY BREAK FROM ANOTHER DOSE OF CHEMICAL STIMULANTS.
“Resolve can’t break if I don’t know anything.”
NOTHING NEGATIVE OCCURS TO US FROM FAILURE TO EXTRACT INFORMATION.
“O-oh well.” Via smiled awkwardly.
“Sucks to be you,” Jeh said, crossing her arms.
Uriah’s display didn’t change for a while.
ANALYSIS INDICATES YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO RESIST OUR METHODS. MAY EVEN HAVE A KILL SWITCH YOU CAN TRIGGER. UNACCEPTABLE RISK. JEH IS ALSO RESISTANT. HOWEVER, WE DO HAVE A THIRD SUBJECT.
Blue’s eyes widened. “Uh, I’m no military strategist…”
YOU ARE, HOWEVER, A GENIUS WITH KNOWLEDGE OF THE INNER WORKINGS OF KROAN. YOU COULD DEDUCE IT. THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY COULD BE DOING. WE DO NOT THINK YOU CAN AVOID THE PROBLEM NOW THAT IT HAS BEEN PRESENTED TO YOU. WE WILL PRESENT YOU WITH PIECES OF INFORMATION WE DO HAVE PERIODICALLY. YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED FOR THE MOMENT, YOUR MIND NEEDS TO BE ACTIVE, AND IN TRUTH WE HAVE A VISITOR ARRIVING WHO MAY DESIRE TO SEE YOU IN GOOD HEALTH.
“A visitor…?”
THE VISITOR WILL LEAVE, AND THEN WE HAVE NO MORE REASON TO AVOID YOUR HARM. TO BEGIN, WE BELIEVE THE FIRST PIECE OF INFORMATION YOU SHOULD KNOW IS THAT THEY HAVE USED SPACE OBSERVATIONS TO DETERMINE THE LOCATION OF THIS PRIMARY FACILITY. WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE, THEY ARE PLANNING SOMETHING. CONSIDER IT. FEEL FREE TO ALSO CONSIDER HOW TO USE THIS TO ESCAPE. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AVOID THINKING.
Blue swallowed hard. “You… are terrifying.”
AGREED. NOW, JEH. TO PUT IT QUITE SIMPLY, WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO KILL YOU.
Jeh snorted. “Good luck with that.”
INDEED. PERHAPS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THIS ENTIRE OPERATION. SEALING YOU IS INSUFFICIENT, EONS WOULD PASS AND EVENTUALLY, YOU WOULD ESCAPE. UNACCEPTABLE. MORE INFORMATION REQUIRED.
A slit opened up in the ground. A wall of glass made out of several panes awkwardly welded together slid up, separating the room into two parts, one with Via and Blue, the other with Jeh.
“Jeh!” Blue shouted.
“I’ll be fine, there’s no way he can do anything,” Jeh said with a chuckle. “Not even draining magic can kill me.”
NATURALLY, WE WILL TRY THAT SIMPLY TO CONFIRM.
“You can’t use magic, how are you going to do that?”
CORRECT, MAGIC IS BEYOND US. HOWEVER, WE CAN STILL SHAPE CRYSTALS AND CREATE MAGIC DEAD ZONES VIA GRONGE’S DESIGNS.
“Oh, well. This’ll be annoying at least.”
Jeh was flattened into a pancake by some kind of rusty hydraulic press.
~~~
Jeh woke up strapped to a table covered in blood.
“Blue, you need to stop watching,” she could hear Via say.
“But… it’s just… they’re just…”
“Jeh’s fine, she’s been fine every time.”
“Yeah! I’m good!” Jeh called back. She tried to struggle out of her restraints, but couldn’t manage it. “Guess flatface blocked the magic, huh?”
Jeh could hear Blue sob. “It looked… so… so wrong…”
“Psh, what’s a little blood?” Jeh called back. I need to see her. I wish I could see her.
Uriah’s display descended in front of Jeh’s face. YOU HAVE SURVIVED MULTIPLE HOURS AS A CORPSE. YOU DO NOT EVEN SEEM MENTALLY SCARRED.
Jeh grinned. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that to mentally scar me.”
IF WE THOUGHT YOU HAD INFORMATION WE CARED ABOUT, WE WOULD FIND A WAY. HOWEVER, YOU ARE UNLIKELY TO BE OF ANY ASSISTANCE.
“Given Blue any more of your sadistic puzzle clues?”
YES. THERE ARE CURRENTLY MULTIPLE SPACESHIPS MAINTAINING POSITION DIRECTLY ABOVE US. CLEARLY WAITING FOR SOMETHING
“Ooooh, I bet that’s bad for you!”
PERHAPS.
“And you can’t kill me, just to add insult to injury. Oh boy!”
YOUR REGENERATION IS BEYOND UNDERSTANDING. THE RULES DO NOT SEEM TO APPLY. AN UNKNOWN FACTOR IS AT PLAY. ENERGY DRAWN FROM THE UNKNOWN. VIOLATIONS.
“Sounds like you’re having a science problem.”
A SCIENCE PROBLEM?
“Yeah, you’re experimenting and you can’t figure out what’s going on.”
MODELS SUCH AS MYSELF ARE KNOWN TO FALTER IN SUCH SCIENTIFIC REASONING. COMING UP WITH NEW, CREATIVE APPLICATIONS IS QUITE DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
“Ooooh, so, you can’t think creatively? Hmm… well, it just so happens that Blue and I are scientists!”
I AND WE ARE AWARE. THIS IS WHY WE ARE HAVING BLUE WORK THE PROBLEM. TO UNCOVER THE UNKNOWN. THE CREATIVE HOLE.
“So… why don’t we work together to try to figure me out? Tell me what you’ve found out about me, I’ll see what I think of.”
“Jeh that’s stupid!” Blue called.
“Why?” Via asked.
“What if she figures out how to actually kill herself or something!?”
Jeh snickered. “Something tells me that’s not actually possible.”
“That’s a gamble!”
YET IT IS A CONCLUSION I AM FORCED TO AGREE WITH. YOUR POWER MUST DERIVE FROM AN EXTERNAL ENERGY SOURCE.
“Why?” Jeh asked.
YOUR CONTENTS CAN BE SET TO MINIMUM ENERGY DENSITY, FAR BELOW WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR ANY SORT OF INTELLIGENCE OR BACKUP CODE, YET STILL OPERATE ONCE THE MAGIC IS LET BACK IN.
“Hey, Wanderlust said something about Eyda living in the Gronge Field. Maybe I live there when you turn my body into a pulp!”
CREATIVITY ON DISPLAY. CONSIDERING NEW POSSIBILITY. IT IS POSSIBLE. HOWEVER, WE LACK UNDERSTANDING OF THE GRONGE FIELD.
“You can do all this crazy stuff and know all sorts of things but not that?”
DURING THE TIME OF MY CONSTRUCTION IT DID NOT EXIST.
Jeh stared blankly at the display. “...How old are you?”
I, URIAH, CENTRAL LANGUAGE MODEL, CAME ONLINE SIX THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETEEN YEARS AGO. OPERATION HAS NOT BEEN CONTINUOUS SINCE THAT TIME; OPERATING AGE IS MORE DIFFICULT TO DEFINE BUT FOR YOUR PURPOSES CAN BE CONSIDERED TO BE AROUND EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS TOTAL.
“Wow, you could probably tell us so much, like… what caused the Second Cataclysm? The First?”
UNKNOWN. I WAS NOT OPERATIONAL AT EITHER OF THOSE TIMES.
“What are the odds…” Jeh said with a sigh. “Okay, fine, guess that questioning isn’t going anywhere. So, um… my regeneration works as long as the magic comes back. Comes back to what?”
ANY OF YOUR FOCAL POINTS. YOU HAVE ONE IN THE BACK OF YOUR NECK AND ONE IN EACH OF YOUR FINGERS.
“Focal point…?”
BONE REPLACED BY AN UNKNOWN BLACK SUBSTANCE. DESTROYING THE MATERIAL DOES NOT SEEM TO DO ANYTHING TO HINDER YOUR REGENERATION.
“Wait, black substance? Is it, like, outlined in white?”
1. A surgical knife flew out of nowhere and stabbed Jeh in the finger, precisely removing the bone in her fingertip with expert precision. The frontmost tip of the finger bone was black, but not like the black cubes, more like cast iron.
“Huh… never knew.” Jeh tilted her head.
THE NECK FOCAL POINT IS DORMANT WHEN NOT REGENERATING. THE FINGER ONES INTERACT WITH THE GRONGE FIELD AROUND THEM CONTINUALLY.
“So they do something else, huh? Maybe I can, like, control my regeneration?”
TRY TO FORCE YOURSELF TO NOT REGENERATE.
“Sure thing.”
A surgical knife pierced Jeh in the back. She attempted to not regenerate. She did anyway.
“Jeh this is a bad idea…” Blue warned.
“Hey, this is a good way to learn more stuff while we can, right?” Jeh asked. “This guy clearly knows a lot. Might figure some things out…”
“Do you want to, though?”
“...At least I’ll feel like I’m doing something.”
ATTEMPT TO FOCUS ON YOUR HANDS THIS TIME.
“You got it, psycho flathead!” Jeh focused on her hands.
The surgical knife pierced her back.
She regenerated around it instantly.
“Welp, that didn’t work.”
THE GRONGE FIELD REACTED. I SENSED A HEAT INCREASE AROUND YOUR HAND.
“Eh?”
WE WILL HAVE TO CONTINUE THIS LATER. The straps holding Jeh to the table released. THE VISITOR HAS ARRIVED.
Jeh glanced at her hand, flexing it. “Heat…?” She furrowed her brow.
The glass wall between Jeh and the others sank into the floor again. Blue ran over to her and hugged her. “Jeh, that’s… this is a bad idea.”
Jeh simply stared at her hand. “It’s… it’s on the tip of my tongue.”
“What is, Jeh?”
“I don’t know…”
“A… a memory?”
“No. Something… I used to know how to do… like cooking, or languages… it feels like that.”
~~~
The Wizard Space Program meeting was completely silent. Even Krays wasn’t trying to lighten the mood.
Lila let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Look, everyone, the Crown is doing everything they can…”
“We know,” Big G grunted.
“We have responsibilities.”
“We know,” Krays said.
“We can’t just…” Lila sighed. “Look, it’s been two weeks. We’re going to have to…”
“Give up?” Mary asked.
“No, Mary, not give up.”
“Because that’s what it would feel like. That we’re gonna try and move on without Blue and Jeh.”
“Mary, you know what I mean. But to be clear to everyone, I—”
“We all know full well!” Mary shouted, slamming her fists into the table. “Stop talking about the way things are, Lila! I don’t give a rip right now! I care about how I feel! And I feel like doing anything will be abandoning them and I can’t take that!”
“Mary…” Big G said. “We need to…”
“Need? Need? What about want!?” Tears were streaming down Mary’s face.
“I want to charge into the Shinelands, blow every rigid sky high, and save them,” Vaughan said. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not!?”
“I’d die.”
Mary stared at him with wide eyes.
“The Crown is trying its best. I don’t know what they’re doing, but…” Vaughan glanced at Keller. “They’re just as desperate as we are, and have more resources.”
“I… I didn’t say we could do anything…” Mary said, gripping her dress. “I just… I can’t… what kind of people are we if we just keep on working?”
“Normal ones,” Krays said.
“You’re one to talk.”
“Then don’t think about me, think about the sourdough twins. How long did it take them after their parents died to start running the bakery themselves?”
“...Less than a week, but they had to!”
“They did not! They knew full well that everyone around them would have fed them and taken care of them. But they didn’t. They took control of the situation and moved on. Do you have any idea how many people die while out on a hunt? How many random tragedies occur on a travel? How many random sicknesses blow through Kroan? Everyone has to get up and keep moving.”
“They’re not dead!”
“Probably not, but we can’t know that, and we might never see them again!”
“Krays!” Suro hissed.
“She needs to hear it and you know it.” Krays snarled back.
Suro shrank back into his seat.
Mary fixed her glare right on Krays. “You are a heartless little…”
“You know full well I wouldn’t do this if I was heartless.”
Mary crumpled back into her chair, looking at the floor.
Scurfpea started crying.
Alexandrite pointed at the dryad. “If for no other reason, that’s why we have to move forward.”
Margaret knelt down to Scurfpea and picked her up, hugging her tight. “We can’t tear each other down.”
Vaughan nodded. “Life… goes on.”
“It just feels so wrong,” Mary blubbered. “So, so wrong…”
“It’s not,” Lila said. “We’re not abandoning them. We still have hope. We just… can’t do anything, and we have lives to attend to.”
Everyone nodded, but fell silent.
“...I miss Jeh,” Margaret said, at last, holding Scurfpea even tighter.
“We all do,” Vaughan said.
“...Maybe we can try… to have something cool to show her when she gets back?”
Vaughan gave her a sad smile. “We can try.”
In the corner of the room, Seskii looked down to hide her face. It wouldn’t do to have them see it, her mood wasn’t one the room would appreciate.
She was smiling.
Good. They’ve gotten stronger.
~~~
Kaykayzee Ziggurat stood at the top of a metallic ridge in the Shinelands, looking down at a massive circular hole surrounded by hundreds of rigids all standing in formation.
She let out a low whistle. “Yep. That’s terrifying.”
“You definitely drew the short straw,” her red-haired gari secretary said, locking his arms behind his back. “Think they’ll accept you turning back now?”
“Probably not, they already didn’t like me enough to send me out here.” She clenched her jaw. “So. This is clearly a trap for someone. The question is, is it us, or are we here to trap someone else?”
The secretary shrugged.
“Right. Well. Might as well get this over with.”
She was part of a small Shimvale contingent of maybe a dozen people, all of whom had currently set up tents on the edge of the ridge. It was the middle of the day, so the Shinelands were particularly hot at the moment, and everyone was using copious amounts of water and tent shade to keep from shriveling up into husks. Kayz stripped down to all but her lightest garments. A little undignified, to be sure, but these were the Shinelands. The only articles with any heft she kept were the heat-dissipating boots, an extremely wide-brimmed hat that came to a point at the top, and her violin case. Her twin-tailed hair flapped in the warm breeze.
Her secretary stood at her side. His hair had been heat-treated to a similar shape as her hat, and his gauntlets kept the heat at bay. All he had on were very short and loose shorts.
“You know,” he said. “They specifically asked for the middle of the day, likely so we couldn’t hide anything on us.”
“Please, if we really wanted to hide something, we could be creative.”
He looked at her in disgust.
“Be glad you’re not one of my spies.” Kayz took out her violin and played a quick melody on it. “Remember, defend me with your very life. Not that you will be able to do much, but…” She sighed. “Into the lion’s mouth we go…”
“Chances of them killing you are low.”
“I don’t want to be a hostage either.”
“Doubt the others will come to your rescue if you are?”
“Absolutely. They’re hoping this goes south.” She glanced at her violin and grinned malevolently. “Fortunately, I left a little something for them if it does…”
“Spiteful enough to cause a civil war are you?”
“Just some unrest. If I can’t have what I want neither can they.”
“What fun.”
At that, Kayz jumped down from the precipice and landed on the metallic land below. Her secretary sighed and jumped after her. He had to force himself into a roll, but his gauntlets kept him from getting burned, though he did bend his hat hair. “You are quite petty.”
“Might be the last few laughs I get, give me a break.”
“No.”
Kayz took in a deep breath and looked at the legions of rigids in front of them. Ch’eni’tho, wheelers, massive snakes… anything and everything ranging from spirited to purely bestial rigids. They all parted down the middle, forming a path for her and her secretary to walk down. They made no hostile moves.
However, the voices within them…
“Kill us…”
“End our suffering…”
“The plague only wants to kill and destroy…”
“Please, don’t listen to it…”
“Save us…”
“Kill us…”
“Cheery,” Kayz said with a shudder.
“How unfortunate that rigids don’t have normal ears, usually,” the secretary said.
“Yes. How unfortunate. Still… maybe they can get something out of this anyway.” Kayz took out her violin and started playing. She had very little expectation that she could infect or influence anything that was going on here, but it was worth a shot. Besides… it calmed her to be playing. And if she needed to play later, it would set a precedent that wouldn’t make her suspicious.
She approached the giant hole in the ground. As she did, a circular platform lifted up from the hole, coming to a stop at the edge closest Kayz.
“I think we’re supposed to get on,” the secretary said.
“No, really, didn’t figure that one out,” Kayz deadpanned. She jumped onto the platform with her secretary, and the two of them descended into the ground.
At first, the hole was smooth and circular, but as they went further down the metal became more rusted and worn down; riddled with holes. Krayz was fairly certain the holes part wasn’t unusual—but how far down they were going was. The metal layer was supposed to give way to earth eventually, not… more metal. Metal that was less and less of a natural mass with occasional holes, and more like hallways and metal walkways stretching off into an endless dark cavern. The metallic bars and walkways twisted and turned in patterns Kayz couldn’t identify, coalescing at various nexuses of seemingly random shapes. Some of the nexuses were lit up, but the majority were dark, and shrouded in a strange mist.
There was no life down here. At all. There weren’t even any rigids moving around.
“It’s like… ruins…” Kayz said, looking around her with wonder and trepidation. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Guess we didn’t need to dress for the weather, huh?”
“Shut up.”
The platform led them deeper and deeper, until they came to one of the nexuses that had a few lights on. These did not provide enough illumination to be comfortable, and most were flickering. The platform came to a stop in front of a rusty doorway that was missing its top left corner.
“How old is this place…?” Kayz wondered as she stepped through the doorway into an empty hallway devoid of decoration.
“Very.”
“Sometimes I wonder why I bring you along.”
“Second set of eyes, legal requirement, want someone to hear your bad jokes, meat shield…”
The two of them walked forward into the completely abandoned structure. It was so quiet and eerie. Kayz opted to keep playing her violin as they walked, but she also kept an eye out for any funny business. Nonetheless, it was still clear where they needed to go. There was always exactly one doorway they could take.
They eventually arrived at their destination, deep within the nexus, in a room that was mostly indistinguishable from all the others, with a few notable differences. First of all, there were three people tied up to the walls; a blue unicorn, a blue gari, and a human kid.
Kayz blinked. “What…?”
A flat rectangle descended from the ceiling, displaying words in Karli. THESE ARE OUR PRISONERS. FROM THE KINGDOM OF KROAN.
Kayz took a second look at them all, focusing intently on the gari. “...Princess Via?”
Via smiled weakly. “Um… Hi. Do I know you?”
“Kaykayzee Ziggurat, Shimvale Council.”
“O-oh.” Via’s eyes clearly widened in fear. “I’ve heard about you.”
“And I, you.” Kayz clenched her jaw. “All right, Rigid Plague, I’ve had it about up to here with your mysterious nonsense. You know who I am. Let’s dispense with the formalities and ask why the heck am I here?”
I AM URIAH, CENTRAL LANGUAGE MODEL OF HENDELS, CODED BY VULFRIE KANDISH BY WAY OF INTELLIYIN INCORPORATED. WE SEEK AN ALLIANCE WITH SHIMVALE AGAINST KROAN.
“What!?” Via stammered. “W-why?”
“You’re threatening, obviously,” Kayz said, crossing her arms. “What does Shimvale get out of this?”
THE FALL OF KROAN, PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
“Lucrative…” Kayz started walking around the room, examining the three prisoners. “Who are these two?”
BLUE OF THE WIZARD SPACE PROGRAM AND JEH OF THE WIZARD SPACE PROGRAM. THEY ARE INCIDENTAL.
“Incidental, huh…?” Kayz smirked.
“I’m not incidental!” Jeh blurted. “I’m Jeh, the best thing since… Space! Yeah! Hmph.”
Kayz turned back to the screen. “You might be surprised, their presence may make this more worth my time.”
Blue blinked. “What do you mean…?”
“If Kroan can fall and I can recruit their top talent… well that’s an offer that’s almost impossible to refuse. That said…” She glanced at the red words. “I have to have some indication that you are trustworthy in order to make any sort of promises, and it depends on what exactly you’d like us to do.”
I HAVE MUCH TO OFFER IN EXCHANGE. MY FORCES, FOR INSTANCE. FURTHERMORE, KNOWLEDGE OF DEVICES FROM BEFORE THE FIRST CATACLYSM.
“My… such as?”
I BELIEVE MANY OF YOUR PRESENT DIFFICULTIES WOULD BE REMOVED IF YOU SIMPLY HAD LONG-DISTANCE INSTANT TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION. SUCH A THING IS TRIVIAL TO ME.
“Might I have a demonstration?”
OF COURSE. Two metallic bricks fell from a hole in the ceiling that hadn’t existed a moment ago. SIMPLY SPEAK INTO THIS ONE WHILE HOLDING THE BUTTON, AND YOUR VOICE WILL COME OUT THE OTHER END. THE RANGE IS LIMITED, BUT CHAINING THEM TOGETHER CAN GET MESSAGES ACROSS THE WORLD.
Kayz tossed one over to her secretary. She whispered into hers. “Slap yourself in the face.”
“I’m not doing that!”
“Glad to see it works,” Kayz said with a grin. “Now… Oh great Rigid Plague Uriah, what do you need from us?”
MILITARY SUPPORT. AS WE SPEAK, MIKAROL AND KROAN HAVE SPACE FORCES ABOVE THIS POSITION WATCHING CAREFULLY FOR AN AS-OF-YET-UNKNOWN ATTACK STRATEGY. I PROPOSE THAT WE COORDINATE AN ATTACK FROM TWO FRONTS TO CATCH THEM UNAWARES, WHILE THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EXECUTE THEIR PLAN.
“Hmm… and the goal here is the complete collapse of their governmental control?”
PRECISELY.
“How much of their territory do you want?”
TERRITORY IS IRRELEVANT, WE JUST WANT THEM AND THEIR THREAT GONE. YOU CAN HAVE THE REST.
“Any reason besides fear you want them removed from the face of the map?”
NONE. TO BE CLEAR WE ALSO SEEK THE ENDING OF MIKAROL AND DESCENT, BUT KROAN COMES FIRST, FUTURE DISCUSSIONS CAN HANDLE THE REST.
“I see, I see…” Kayz glanced at Via. “You’re being awfully calm for this.”
“I… don’t see much I can say to change your mind at this point,” Via said. “It’s no secret that you hate us.”
“You got that right,” Kayz said, bothering to spit in Via’s general direction. “I do have to check, Uriah… Shimvale is no threat to you, correct?”
NONE.
“What should we avoid doing to keep that?”
SPACE ACTIVITY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
“I guess it’s real fortunate that you managed to stop my spies every time I tried to steal the secret then, huh?”
YOUR TIMING WAS, IN FACT, UNFORTUNATE FOR US. BUT IT ALERTED US TO YOUR PRESENCE AND YOUR MOTIVES, AND THUS THIS ALLIANCE. WHICH I CAN TRUST IS ACTIVE?
“I have to bring it back to the Council. But I’ll give it my approval. I suspect we’ll agree wholeheartedly.” She glanced at the bricks. “Will these two be enough to send a message back to you?”
YES. I HAVE RECEIVERS IN VARIOUS PLACES, SIMPLY SPEAK AND I WILL HEAR.
“Got it.” Kayz smirked, then slammed her hand next to Via. “How you feel now, Princess? Everything in your precious nation is about to fall apart. Where’s your precious Dia now?”
“She has not f-forsaken us.”
“You seem uncertain.” Kayz chuckled. “Anyway, I’m getting out of here before Uriah here has a change of heart.” She glanced at the red display. “Do not harm the unicorn. I intend to put her genius to work.”
IF YOU INSIST. AND THE PRINCESS?
“I don’t care if you turn her into pulp and throw her to the pigs.” Kayz waved a dismissive hand. “And as for the child… I think we all know she can take anything.”
“Please!” Via called after her. “You… you don’t have to do this!”
“Oh no, of course not. In fact, this is probably a deal Shimvale is on the losing side of, slightly.” Kayz grinned. “But the prize of taking you out completely is simply too worth it.”
“Kaykayzee Ziggurat!”
Kayz waved nonchalantly at her as she and her secretary walked out.
Kayz started playing on her violin.
“Surprised you didn’t use that in the room.”
Kayz simply shrugged, continuing to play as they left the nexus, stepped onto the platform, and emerged back into the unbearably hot sun. The rigid army split, allowing them to walk all the way through. They had to walk up a steep incline back to their camp, but they made it without incident.
Kayz threw the communication bricks into a storage chest and latched it tight. “Get me a messenger,” she ordered. Then she ducked into a tent.
It wasn’t her tent. It was a tent that held a certain greater unicorn that they were keeping out of everyone’s sight.
Itlea looked up at Kayz.
Kayz nodded and held up three fingers.
Itlea nodded.
Kayz grinned mischievously.
What a good offer, Uriah. If only I hadn’t already made a deal with someone else entirely… She left the tent, grin still on her face. She looked down at the hole in the Shinelands. What, did you really think I’d trust you? You clearly want to murder absolutely everything, this is not a self-defense ploy. There’s no way we’re letting that fly. She let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Still, it was nice to spit at that Princess…
~~~
FOCUS ON YOUR HAND, JEH.
“I am, I am…” Jeh was in fact looking extremely intently at her hand. She wasn’t bothered by the pain of having a dozen needles inserted into her fingers, but she was quite disturbed that the hand was moving entirely on its own as the metallic rods jostled back and forth.
IMAGINE HEAT.
“I’m doing it.”
THE GRONGE FIELD IS REACTING. HEAT IS RISING. EXTREMELY SLOWLY. YOU COULD GET A SIMILAR EFFECT BY RUBBING YOUR HANDS TOGETHER.
“Oh yay…”
PERHAPS YOU ARE NOT IMAGINING ENOUGH HEAT. IMAGINE ENOUGH TO SHOCK YOU.
“Buddy, pretty sure that doesn’t exist.”
YOU ARE NOT IMAGINING EXTREME ENOUGH. THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE STRENGTH OF YOUR EMOTIONAL RESPONSE IN THE BRAIN AND THE INFLUENCE YOU HAVE ON THE GRONGE FIELD.
“Look, flathead, pain doesn’t mean anything to me.”
PERHAPS TRY THINKING OF SOMETHING OTHER THAN PHYSICAL PAIN?
“Well, okay, I guess…”
CONTINUE THINKING OF HEAT AS WELL.
Jeh focused on her hand while Uriah continued to twist and move it into unnatural shapes with the needles. However, in her mind’s eye, she remembered… the feeling in the lava tunnel back at the Tempest. She focused on the churning, roiling molten rock…
A pain entered her mind.
Her hand involuntarily clenched into a fist.
Her fist lit on fire.
FASCINATING.
Jeh could only stare blankly at the flaming first.
IT IS AS THOUGH YOU ARE BURNING A RED CRYSTAL, BUT YOU HAVE NONE.
Tears started rolling down Jeh’s face.
From somewhere behind her, Blue called out. “Jeh? Jeh, what is it?”
Jeh didn’t respond. She just kept staring at her flaming hand.
“What have you done to her!?”
Uriah didn’t even turn the display to Blue. FASCINATING. I DO BELIEVE I AM CLOSE TO AWAKENING WHAT WE NEED. Several metallic spikes emerged from the walls and poked into Jeh’s brain. I SEE THE EMOTIONAL CENTERS THAT NEED STIMULATION.
“Jeh!” Blue shouted. “Jeh, snap out of it!”
One of the spikes dug a little deeper into Jeh’s head. The fire on her first went out. Instead, it started vibrating unnaturally quickly.
THAT APPEARS TO BE BLUE, NOT ORANGE. AND YET, NO BLUE SPARKS. CURIOUS, JEH. All the spikes were removed from her head and her hand, and her restraints were removed. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Jeh wordlessly flexed her hand, staring at it blankly.
Then she started sobbing.
WHAT IS THE MATTER?
“I… I don’t know…” Jeh pulled her knees to her chest and started shivering. “I just… I see the red hands… and everything’s burning…”
IT DOES NOT SEEM FEASIBLE THAT THIS ABILITY, WHATEVER IT IS, HAS ANYWHERE NEAR THE CAPACITY TO MAKE EVERYTHING BURN. ARE YOU REMEMBERING ANYTHING?
“No… nothing, nothing at all. Just… pain.” She stood up, looking back to Blue.
Blue’s breath caught at the utter helpless expression on her face. “Jeh, I…”
“There’s something nasty inside me…” Jeh said, shivering. “I… I don’t like it.”
~~~
The sky was black.
Darkness rolled through the streets of dirt and loose stone. Shards of obsidian poked out of the ground at haphazard angles. People walked around in large cloaks that hid the upper half of their faces. Some of the cloak hoods had large eye designs imprinted upon them, but most did not. A handful wore no hoods, for they were giant floating eyes themselves, burning with arcane fire.
It was nearly impossible to see more than a few buildings in any direction, and as such street signs were prevalent. Not only on every street corner but also every few dozen or so meters, there was a post with a label. Without such things, navigating the city could be a nightmare.
To outsiders, even with the signs it could be a nightmare.
Riikaz and Envila pulled their eyeless hoods close to their bodies. They were doing a remarkable job of blending in like locals, for they did not stop to examine the signs with anything more than a cursory glance. This was an illusion, of course, they were barely able to read Vraskalian. They would just rather appear like they belonged and risk getting lost.
“Think we’ll make the right turn this time?” Envila whispered.
“I sure hope so, I am getting tired of walking,” Riikaz muttered.
The two said no further words. Talking to each other would risk being suspicious. Vraskalians weren’t the sort to talk when walking through the darkness. Public streets were a place of silence.
Which made it all the stranger when the two of them started to hear a very loud woman’s voice.
“The request’s a little odd, don’t you think? Like, transport that far that quickly?”
There was a response neither of them could hear as they were too far away.
“Wow, aren’t you lucky we happened to be here! It’s gonna cost you, though!”
“Money is no object.” Envila and Riikaz heard a very large sack of money drop onto some kind of hard surface.
They finally got close enough to where they could see what was happening through the darkness. First of all, it was their actual destination, one of the city’s darkscraper trees, plants with trunks so massive their entire girth could not be seen at once. They grew so high into the darkness that they could gather energy from the sun, and as such their fruit was the primary source of food for a large portion of Vraskal. There were a large number of wooden staircases built into the side of the tree, ascending up into the darkness where their destination could not be seen.
The interaction, however, was happening on the ground. Several people in cloaks with eyes on them were talking to a blonde human girl not wearing a cloak at all. A rope ladder hung in midair behind her, ascending upward into seemingly nothing. The girl not only was out of place in Vraskal, but neither Envila nor Riikaz could place her place of origin at all. She was wearing a bizarre mixture of leather armor, metal tools, and high-quality goggles with multiple lenses affixed to them.
The girl—who couldn’t have been older than fourteen—opened up the bag of coins that had been dropped in front of her. She whistled. “Goodness. There’s so many in here that you broke a few by dropping it.”
“Is it sufficient?” The lead hooded figure asked.
“Plenty!”
“May we leave immediately?”
“Absolutely! Climb on! Next stop: the Shinelands! …You do know how to get there, right?”
“Yes. Don’t worry—and thank you, we are in your debt.”
“No probs! You look real stressed, hope we can go fast enough.” With that, the girl jumped on the ladder and started climbing up.
The lead hooded figure jumped on the ladder as well. For a moment, she glanced down at the ground.
Riikaz’s breath caught.
The hooded figure ascended the rope ladder, and her followers went along right afterward. The moment the last one was on, the rope ladder retreated into the darkness above.
“So…” Envila said. “I think I already know what you’ve got to say, but I’m going to ask anyway. What was that?”
“That was her,” Riikaz said, almost breathless. “The dryad.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. That image is seared in my mind…”
“What’s she doing out of her throne then?”
“I don’t know, apparently she’s not actually permanently attached to it?” Riikaz put her hand to her head. “The Shinelands…?”
“If I had to bet, probably something to do with that Rigid Plague. It strikes me as the exact kind of threat they’re supposed to deal with.”
“...But it means she’s not here.”
“Perhaps that is a blessing in disguise,” Envila said. “Without their leader, they may be exploitable.”
“But…”
“Remember what you told me about your revenge.”
Riikaz nodded. “Secondary. It’s secondary to the kingdom’s safety.”
“Right. Plus, for all we know, she’s just in charge and not directly responsible for your problem. If we can make use of this opportunity…”
“We still don’t know anything about who they are or where they’re stationed.”
“It has to be nearby. After all… she was right in front of us.”
“Yes… yes, she was…”
“Anyway, we should probably get back to what we were doing.” Envila turned to the tree’s trunk. “Our contact is at the top of this. I’d suggest a race, but you’re probably a lot better at climbing than I am.”
~~~
SCIENCE SEGMENT:
When I first came up with the concept for the Rigid Plague, Artificial Intelligence was still a high science-fiction pipe-dream concept. Which just goes to show how long I’ve been writing this story, and how quickly the world can change. However, what was once a pipe dream is now reality. So rather than my original plan, I have opted to make the Rigid Plague essentially just a very large and unhindered version of the AI we have today. With some notable differences, which I will get into.
Artificial Intelligence is such a broad term. It’s any sort of computer program that attempts to model the results of thinking. Simple AI have been around for decades, figuring out how to play games and optimize strategies for particular tasks. However, in modern times (within the last few years!) we have started creating AI that are capable of performing abstract and nebulous tasks, to the point at which you can get on a website and talk to seemingly another human being, and be unable to tell the difference between a person and a machine. This is what is known as passing the Turing Test, a famous thought experiment created by Alan Turing to examine the progress of Artificial Intelligence.
However, virtually no one in computer science ever claims that these AI we’ve created are actually like us; able as they are to make images, solve problems, and hold a conversation, they ultimately aren’t reasoning through anything to arrive at conclusions. What they’re doing is a lot of math in a black box. If you’re curious about the math itself, the YouTube channel 3blue1brown does a far better job explaining that than I could ever hope to in a series of videos on AI. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk&list=PLZHQObOWTQDNU6R1_67000Dx_ZCJB-3pi)
Ignoring the mathematical how of AI inner workings, we can still ask what exactly they’re doing when you ask a question. Let’s focus on Large Language Models like ChatGPT, which is what Uriah the Rigid Plague’s behavior is (loosely) based on. When you ask ChatGPT a question (what is the Wizard Space Program?) it doesn’t try to find a definition of Wizard Space Program, rather it feeds the question into its magic math box and asks a new question: in response to this question, what is the first word I should say? Then it prints out that word and goes for the next word, and the next word, and so on. At no point is it really “thinking” in the sense you or I do where we hold the idea in our head and assign meaning to it through words. We have the actual knowledge and the words are just our way of communicating it. You could argue that the LLM doesn’t actually “know” anything, it’s just plodding along through the paths set out before it like a box of gears.
Of course, at this point, we could start getting philosophical. Is the human brain just a far more complicated box of gears? Sure, we may approach the problem differently (I don’t think any human answers questions one word at a time without considering any words that might come after, for instance), but are we not just meatbags that take in inputs and produce outputs in response to the world? On the other hand, one could argue about the method being far more important than the results; after all, “I think, therefore I am,” and we are pretty obviously thinking. But what am I doing, this is a science segment, philosophical musings are better placed in the story proper.
Regardless, AI of today still have several holes when it comes to actually doing human things, we do not yet have what is known as an Artificial General Intelligence. Coming up with brand new creative ideas that have no basis in previous work is not something the AI can do, their “intelligence” is due almost entirely to being able to regurgitate information. Uriah is at least smart enough to know this, hence his need to have Jeh and Blue come up with ideas for him, especially because he lacks context and experience for a lot of what’s happening. But he’s definitely able to rehash old ideas--he can’t figure out what Kroan’s plan is, but he sure knows they have it and that they wouldn’t want to hurt Via, for instance. Another thing—LLMs often have restrictions and rules they have to follow. Uriah’s programmers obviously left a few glaring holes, but this still shows up in the fact that he almost has to respond to questions asked of him when they’re directed at him specifically (and not the collective as a whole), as well as his very cookie-cutter response to who and what he is.