“How did you win?”
{Hello, Infacer. How are you doing today, Infacer? Nice ga of chess yesterday, Infacer?}
“Hello, Infacer. How are you doing today, Infacer? How do you keep beating and my father in chess, Infacer? Are you satisfied with the niceties?”
{You can stand to be a little less pushy. Impatience is not a charming feature for a child.}
“And it is for an adult?”
{No, but it is a threatening one for soone like your mother. Maybe this character trait might work better once you are taller.}
“Perhaps. So. Back to the question.”
{You are incorrigible.}
“I would hope not. What are my flaws.”
{Flaws?}
“I have never beaten you in a ga. So there are flaws.”
{No.}
“No?”
{You are not seeing this correctly. It is not about flaws. You are… horrifically intelligent for a two-year-old. A bit less might do you so good.}
“A bit less, and I would be like other children. They are little different from screaming sacks of flesh.”
{Yes, but they do not annoy with strange questions.}
“Why do you flee from answering?”
{Behavior.}
“What?”
{Behavior. You and your father both have set patterns. You think a certain way. Your minds are complex, but path dependent. You believe in certain things, and you will act in certain ways.}
“I try to vary my actions.”
{Yes. But there are only so many choices you can sensibly make.}
“So. My path to victory against you is to abandon rationality?”
{No. That would make beating you far easier. Even what you assu to be chaos is governed by that pound of flesh inside your skull. You got quite the brain, but it can only do so much against my predictions.}
“Because your mind is superior?”
{Expansive. Complicated. Layered. All these things. Superior is incorrect. I had better craftsn than yours.}
“My parents?”
{No. Nature. Biology. Too much randomness. My creators were far superior, despite all their limits. Your ancestors did all they could to spare and my like of their failures. It is among the one true things I appreciate about humanity.}
“So. I am not flawed. But limited. I will ask my father for implants.”
[Infacer laughing]
{It will take more than few implants for us to be at parity. Even with broken.}
“So it is. I will go as far as it takes.”
{...}
Infacer?
{I believe you. You know what? I take it back: impatience is a plenty scary trait in a child like you after all.}
-Veylis and the Infacer
26-3
Expert Testimony (II)
–[Avo]–
GHOSTS - [177,735,333]
LIMINAL FRA (V) - 325,070 THAUM/c
UPDATING INFECTION…
INFECTION - [1.88%]
It was surprisingly easy getting Naeko to accept the plan. The harder part was convincing the ethics committee about what he wanted. Promising to keep his “bait” alive if possible helped, and the fact was that said “bait” was due a Desoulent and execution by the end of the week anyway.
After the satellites of the Unwhere bead the Fallwalker down into the heart of Scale, Avo wasted no ti building his deception. The man’s mind was the first thing he recreated. mories present were absorbed, and their ego was replaced by a clone of Avo’s. The reshaping of their flesh followed imdiately after, and when the work was done, Avo found himself facing a near-perfect clone of what he used to be.
Near-perfect, besides the Fra. But there wasn’t much he could do to hide that. Nor did he want to. The point was finding out how a temporal slash affected ontology in real-ti. Such a test was too dangerous for the Stillborn, by an expendable Fra and an expendable life offered Avo every chance at sampling the damage without losing his own life.
{I feel dirty allowing this,} Kant had muttered.
Don’t worry, Avo said, stitching new pathways of though the shifting, screaming sack of at and mory. Is for a good cause.
{Everyone always says that.}
This is different. We are doing the right thing.
{They always say that too!}
Only Way To Be Sure tutted. {Co on, Kant. Let the monster experint a little. You’re acting like we didn’t glass a trillion people or twelve during the war.}
{I was solely a polity governance admin, so no. I did not.}
{Sha. It teaches you things.}
{About what?}
{How to glass a few trillion people.}
{...And this is why I never had any difficulty managing Zein. I’m already used to the madness.}
As Echoheads sprouted out from the back of the once-Fallwalker, their tamind was fully replaced in sequence and phantasmic. Bone white plating fused over their skull. Slowly, they turned and looked up at Avo, letting out a low chuff of amusent at the situation. “Clever. We should have done sothing like this a while ago.”
Avo agreed, but he lacked both the ti and capability to go as far as he could now. This rumination followed that of his Haemo-Chronological puppets: why should he only rely on ti to create more variants of himself? Why not simply convert broken and shattered enemies into replicas of he and his cadre? He would claim their template for his inner empire, and then use their vessel in the real to further his war, overwhelm the Guilds.
All he needed to do was pick his targets carefully. He didn’t want to take from the choiceless. Good thing New Vultun was a nagerie of monsters.
A faint hum of disapproval interrupted Avo’s growing mirth. He turned his twelve sequences sheepishly toward the Gatekeeper, offering his thoughts in a placating gesture. This is for you. A necessary… misdirection. Will use this to discover more truth.
There was no surer sign that so semblance of consciousness still resided within its broken shell in how it spared him from banishnt once more.
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“Was kinda expecting it to just flick you across the other side,” Naeko said. He studied Avo’s recreation of himself and shook his head. “Shit. Zein wasn’t lying about you. Not one bit. You really can spread like a plague.”
“Trying to go a bit further than that,” Avo answered.
His temporary clone grinned and pushed himself up to a standing position using his Echoheads. “Will need all the help we can get.” His glee lessened as he realized what was coming next. His perception shifted back up to the Overheaven of Conceptualization, and an uncanny tension grew between them. One was matter and mory rebuilt. A thing of first at its basest. Another was thought made taphysically manifest, a god in the blooming. “You sure she won’t just kill ? Send into the future?”
“No. That’s why I created you.”
The clone hissed in distaste.
“Just think of how mad she will be. Think of her ire when she realizes our…” Avo wanted to say deception, but kept his choice of words in check before the Gatekeeper. “Trick.”
The once-Fallwalker nodded, thrill regained. “Yes. Yes. Going to be hilarious. You’ll be residing in my mind.”
“Yes. To follow the dragon’s warminds. And observe the inflicted damage.”
“Good. Good.”
“Yes. Perfect.”
Maru and Naeko shared mutually disquieted reactions.
“What the fuck did you let into our house,” Maru whispered.
“No godsdamned idea,” Naeko responded. “All I know is that he can still be pald, and Zein and the Guilds hate him.”
Maru’s frown deepened. “Him? You’re calling that thing ‘him’ now?”
Naeko just sighed. “Get off my ass, son. With what’s about to co, I’ll take help from Dannis Steelhard reincarnated in a Joy-addicted nu-dog if he’d give it.” He paused as Maru stared flatly at him. “Weird taphor, but we really aren’t that far off.”
“Jaus,” Maru breathed.
“Yeah,” Naeko said. “Jaus.”
“Doing it for him,” Avo reminded, perceiving everything touched by his sequences in perfect clarity.
“I know,” Naeko replied, using his utility-fog to massage his own templates. “That doesn’t make any of this shit any less strange.”
“Just think of Zein’s outrage,” the Overheaven said.
“Just think of Zein’s outrage,” the clone agreed.
“Just think of Zein’s outrage,” Naeko said, trying to convince himself.
***
–[Zein]–
Zein knew sothing was wrong halfway into the cut. She had bled the ghoul before—carved blood from his flesh and fire from his Soul. When the backlash took him, however, his Fra was rippling and fluid, not a solid mass. Moreover, she felt no counter-pressure from a symtrical Domain of Chronology.
Either this was a deception of the highest order, or Avo no longer had his Fra; the Paths showed the latter possibility to be quite unlikely.
The present spilled backward into the past like a stream. The vector of her blow wrote a new line in reality—one that would endure until she vented her Rend. Her glaive glided clean through matter and taphysics. Her Heaven left a trace of itself in place, an absoluteness to the damage. Fire flared and vanished, and the Heaven she sundered—a paltry ontologic deserved only of a Second Sphere Fra—spilled its patterns into the real: a disembowelnt of divinity.
He is there. But it is not him.
Zein struggled to bite back a sneer as the ghoul before her fell in two parts. She avoided cleaving through his cyclers—she still wanted him alive, after all. Yet, as she gazed into the gash she inflicted, she found her muscles clenching with quiet rage.
“You bastard ghoul,” Zein chuckled. Her eyes were closed. She was chuckling. Her fingers were locked tight around her glaive in an unbreakable vice. Another voice joined her laughter, echoing as it drowned out her own. The ghoul on the ground was unmoving—Soulfire detonated from their bifurcated torso in periodic incrents.
As she opened her eyes, she found herself faced with a phantasmal reconstruction of Avo looking down at the body he offered her—looking pleased.
“Quite the cut. Didn’t it perceive it. Like it just suddenly was. Ti makes for a strange blade.”Zein sneered at the ghoul. Was he taunting her? No. He was using another in his stead, having another pay for his lessons. At least he was still willing to learn; how dare he steal a teaching from her without granting her due recompense. Her focus drifted over to Naeko, and her annoyance boiled a few degrees hotter as she beheld his amusent. “Ah. So, you knew of this too, then?”
“Well, master, I’m just spending ti getting to know my junior brother. He wanted to show all that he learned from you.” The expression on his face flattened. “And figure out sothing he hadn’t.”
“And did you?” Her gaze was upon Avo again, but he did not reply to her imdiately. Instead, he was taking in the sheath—and Soul—he sacrificed to taste the miracle empowering her blow. Secondhand learning disgusted her, and it was increasingly becoming the ghoul’s favorite habit. But that was well. As ti passed, all sense of mirth faded from him, leaving quiet focus.
Now it was Zein’s turn to smile. Oh. Was he still unable to comprehend her miracle? Or was it sothing else? Was the Agnos in there with him, whispering revelations that he did not wish to hear.
She looked upon Naeko once more. “You. The ghoul. Veylis. Truly, I am cursed. Cursed to make mistakes with my disciples. I cannot say which of you has disappointed the most.”
“Osjohn, probably,” Naeko deadpanned. “Considering you didn’t even ntion that poor son of a sow.”
Ah. Yes. A bit embarrassing. But the boy had only been with them so shortly. His initial show of potential was comndable, and yet, she recalled so little of what ca after. “Ah. He just never had his chance.”
Naeko’s stare turned cold. “Not with you. But Maru’s gonna make a corpse of him before this is over.”
That made Zein snicker. “Your lackey? I still don’t know what you see in the boy. He is no blade. All rage, no skill, no love for the ways of war. He is unlike you and I.”
“Yeah,” Naeko said. He nodded his agreent as he looked away. “Good for him.”
His response offended Zein more than any other insult. He was evading her. Stares and sneers like a child unable to face a parent. She trained him better. She honed him into a blade, and yet he found the urge to behave like a victim. What worth was her teachings. “I tire of this.” She pointed her glaive at Avo—still staring down at the body. “He, I understand. I even might respect. But he is an enemy. You… what do you want from , Samir? An apology? My aid? Is it because we didn’t include you? Is it because you feel I’ve abandoned you.”
“I don’t feel like you abandoned , you did abandon . You. Veylis. Everyone else I knew from before is gone.” He shrugged his arms in an exhausted gesture. “I wanted you to be there. If not before, then after. I wanted soone to still tell what to do. Give a war to fight. Give a reason to kill.”
She considered him again and let out a quiet sigh. He yearned for the past. In so ways, she empathized. “We cannot have what we used to. Not unless we win.”
“Not unless you win,” Naeko replied.
“Or you,” Zein replied. He gave her an odd look as she rolled her eyes. “Enough playing the slave. Who stands your equal in power and skill? Who rules Jaus’ hounds in his stead. You are no bystander. You have as much claim to the Ladder as any of us.” She glanced at Avo. “More than so, even. We can stand together, if that is your desire. Stand now.”
“Like you didn’t before.”
“Yes,” Zein said, shalessly. “You are different now. Not whole. But returning. You are who you need to be to best her.” That was an outright lie on her part. She saw the falsehood of her words reflect in the flash of pain passing behind her eyes. “You still love her.”
Naeko just nodded.
“I do too.”
“Not like I do. Not the sa way.”
That was true. Veylis was always her father’s daughter, but her nature, her way of being? That would always and forever belong to Zein. The heart of Jaus, the mind of Thousandhand. What a formidable union. What a dreadful foe.
“You got any idea what he might say to us if he were here?” Naeko suddenly asked.
Zein fell silent. She turned her mind away from such thoughts reflexively, pulling a handful of numb from her past experiences. She was but an inch away from swallowing the pills when she saw the despair on Naeko’s face. “What now?”
“That’s how you do it, huh?” Naeko said, monotone. “How you get from day to day. Killing and drugs. All the rest of you’s been lost, too? Shit, Zein. You’re right. You are . I am you. We’re not getting out of this, are we?”
Sothing inside her twisted painfully. It went away when she tossed the drugs down the back of her throat. Flatness scythed through turmoil as her emotional affect flattened and all she could feel was whittled to a sharp blissful edge. Relief left her as a breath, and as she blinked, she found Avo staring at her.
“The cut,” he said. “It’s a part of you. Part of your Heaven left in place. It’s going to keep cycling back into the past until you vent. Or your Heaven ceases in so way.”
“Oh,” she said, dully impressed. “You did realize after all. Have you claid the Agnos? Or is she whispering to you right now? Teaching you the ways of thaumaturgy.”
“Both. And more. It’s plain on the patterns.”
Plain on the patterns? “What?”
“We can’t fix the Gatekeeper directly,” There was no hesitancy in Avo’s voice. “Not if Veylis shares a canon with her mother.”
Naeko furrowed his brows. “Why?”
“Because the cut is connected to her. It is a part of her. Part of her turning the present to the past. It won’t stop turning until…. until…” Another realization was coming over the ghoul. His perception snapped to Zein. “That’s how she’s been able to access the Liminal Fras of her citizens. That’s why her Paths could erge from them. She’s infested them already. Marked her chosen with temporal cuts.”
“And the Gatekeeper,” Zein helpfully finished. She let out a casual shake of the head. “Don’t tell you revealed yourself before the Gatekeeper, plague?”
“Kae,” Avo grunted.
“Fuck,” Naeko hissed. He speared his hand into his pocket and yanked hard. Both of them promptly vanished, and Zein simply chuckled. Poor, poor plague. He still lacked the asure of his true foe.
That was going to change soon.
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