In retrospect, what disturbed us the most was the silence and sudden calmness that preceded everything to co. For a single mont, for a heartbeat in ti, the Guilds stopped their squabbling, stopped arguing, and stopped skirmishing. Veylis, the High Seraph herself, grew restrained and encouraged a proper dialogue between the guilds to honor the passing of her father. Everything seed to hint towards a reunion—a settling into peace after the rise of discord in the shadow of atrocity.
However, that was just a smokescreen. What you learn about war, dear reader, is that it takes ti to organize, it takes ti to muster forces, and it takes ti for the first blows to fall. No one wishes to believe calamity will unfold in their ti, and until the first Ruptures expand before your eyes, it’s not true. You simply will to believe that it cannot be true.
But you learn fast. You learn what you want does not matter when the future was already damned.
-Excerpt from “Silence Before the Fall: A moir of the First Guild War”
34-7
Co Together
Silence. For a good long while after Avo finished recounting all he faced within the substance, his cadre offered only silence. Even Calvino, so filled with insight and infused with eons of wisdom, simply pulsated with processing power, the static cloud forming his avatar growing ever denser.
Silence. Silence. Silence. And then, as with most silences, soone broke it. Chambers spoke first. “Holy fucking shit,” Chambers said, effectively summarizing and offering proper terms to describe all that had happened. “I can’t believe this. Avo, you fucking—you finally got them bent over and ready to receive a durian up the ass! You got Zein, and you fucked the Infancer, and Veylis, and Highfla—you got them running. We actually got a chance. We’re gonna win.”
“And this,” he waved around him, his arms gesticulating wildly. “This is a temporal reality—a whole new realm you… you fucking created. You’re even fixing ti. We’re gonna get the Sang on our side. We’re gonna fucking win, consangs. We’re GONNA FUCKING WIN!”
Though his celebration ca a little early, it pleased Avo to see so joy, at least. Joy was sorely missed, after all they suffered getting to this very mont.
“Now you pull that needle back from your veins,” Draus said, warning Chambers. “I don’t think things are quite so simple. Fight ain’t done. Don’t think Avo would be giving us all I don’t think Avo is going to be giving us this long-winded spiel. A lot more killing we’ll have to do. A lot more fighting as well.”
“Draus’s right,” Avo said. Chambers’ enthusiasm dimd, but he still seed many tis more giddy than the Hidden Fla rembered him to be. “Still, this is good. We have a decisive advantage right now. Requires a few things for everything to go well. Going to try to secure an alliance with the Majority. If we can get the Massists to engage the Saintists on their own territory.”
“Yeah, we can undercut the both sides,” Draus finished for him, nodding. Now a feral grin spread across her face. “Hells, it’ll be good hunting. When both of them are worn out, then we can bring it to them. Using a new warmind of Ignorance, they might not even see us coming.”
“That is part of the plan,” Avo said. “Another part is preservation. I want their Ark. I want to absorb all they are. Everyone under them. Want to keep what they are. Want them to learn. Want to know what they can beco. I want to create an archive, a catalog. All this information needs to be retained when I seize the Ladder.”
“When you have the ladder,” Naeko snorted. One of his eyebrows arced high. “Now you’re being a little too optimistic. Don’t talk about Chambers, none. Avo, you’ve already got the needle all the way through your wrist.”
Avo paused. His Conflagration twitched as his templates mocked him with laughter, christening his arrogance. Naeko paused. “Actually, answer this. You said you had Zein. You’ve got another version of . You absorbed all the thaum you could from the entire Highfla war-host.”
“Not everything. Lost a lot when the Infacer acted.”
“Yeah, but enough of them to put you past the Tenth Sphere. So why aren’t you past that? Why haven’t you ascended? Why are you still here?”
Several heads turned to Naeko, then back to Avo.
“Yeah,” Shotin said. “I… That’s a good question. Why haven’t you just tried jumping past the Ladder? Didn’t the Agnos say you could? That your Fra was special enough to do it on its own?”
“I have the thaums,” Avo answered, “but not an intact Fra. I am just a fragnt right now, a piece of the whole. If I try to ascend… think II will be incomplete. Current ontology can mimic basic functions. But the Stillborn is more than a few rudintary chanics. It is an advancent in thaumaturgy. Need… wholeness. And other problems beside that. Veylis wanted to use it alongside the Ladder for a purpose. Sothing Kae might be better able to explain.”
With a thought, a gateway of Soulfire ford within pillar-sized locus, and out she ca, greeting the others with a wave and a shy smile. “H-hi.”
Chambers swallowed and tried to hide the glossiness building in his eyes. Naeko and Shotin waved back—which caused the latter to just fold his arms, as he didn’t want to be doing the sa thing soone else just did. Calvino offered a proper reply to the tune of a jingling bell, and Draus simply smiled.
For once, it wasn’t the smile of a hound tearing into a bloodied prey or a murderer about to claim another trophy, but one of genuine companionship. The Regular scoffed lightly. “Well, not everyone gets to co back. How’s being dead feel, Agnos?”
“Not quite great,” Kae said. “Avo is doing his best to keep from having a complete ntal breakdown.”
“Yeah, sounds about right. You’ll get over it. So, what’s our poison? Or, well, what the fuck’s keepin’ the rotlick reality bound? Shouldn’t he be off?”
“Your poison right now is that all of your Liminal Fras…” she eyed Naeko. “Well, almost all of your ontological fras are sporting facets of full Stillborn. You are Shardbearers. To be frank, all of you can ascend. Except, I don’t know what will happen if you ascend.”
“You don’t know what will happen,” Shotin deadpanned. “So, what, we might just stop existing once we hit the Tenth Sphere?”
“Very possible. The Stillborn—even though it was created based on a self-defining entity stolen from the Voiders—is still a complete structure. For it to be ontologically broken in the aftermath of embracent, we’re not sure what might happen if you try to… reach past the Tenth Sphere.” She paused for a mont and licked her lips. “It could function as normally, but I strongly doubt it. It is still serving the functions of a basic fra, but… ultimately, the Fra interacts with reality on a level that exceeds our understanding. This could just an that a single portion of the entire Stillborn, is delivered to a new plane of existence while the others have to wait, each one arriving one after another, which… might just cause the ego to stop existing.”
“So, what, it’s like a dismbered ascension?” Chambers muttered.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yes, exactly!” Kae pointed at him, her face brightening in a smile. “That’s quite the good taphor, Chambers.”
He blushed lightly and leaned back. “Well, I’ve been doing so thinking and reading, and lots of people are talking through Lovenet. So, incomplete ascension—that’s not really a good idea.”
“Yes, but it’s not just this,” Kae continued. “There’s also the Ladder. Even if this did work, I would strongly recomnd Avo against ascending right now, because if he crossed the Tenth threshold, if he tries to redefine reality, the Ladder is still coming, and there will be a clash. Think of it like… like how a single place cannot be occupied by two entities at the sa ti without thaumaturgy. The collision will be…”
“We’ve already seen what happens when two Sphere Nines fight,” Avo said. “The destruction, things barely contained. Think about what damage might unfold if two Ten Spheres fight. Can you imagine what war resembles to two beings of absolute omnipotence. Absolute omniscience?”
Everyone went silent.
“I, uh…” Naeko muttered. “How does that work? What would that even look like?”
“I don’t know either,” Avo replied, a slight glibness in his tone, “and I don’t intend to find out. For an entirety of existence to be damaged in such a way. Price we pay will be too high.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we need to secure all the Ark, win the war for good before we ever think about moving on.” Shotin nodded. “Yeah. I see what you’re doing. And… I agree. This has to be worth it. But it can’t be if we’re just going to break everything again.”
Chief Paladin concurred. “Right. No unfinished business. We’ve end this right here, right now, with Veylis down and the fight coming to a close. In this iteration.”
“In this iteration,” Avo echoed. “We have an opportunity. We can end things for good. The substance—it is a separation, but it is also a dividing line. The real war is happening there. Outside of New Vultun, the forces are gathering. Armies mustering. They are also deadlocked. They’re waiting for orders that haven’t co, for conflicting commandnts and strange desires. We can reach out. We can seize them. We can reunite the enclaves and muster forces of our own to bring an end. And this is where I want to begin.”
Avo looked to Draus and continued. “Draus, we need a logistical network. We need to expand our ability to move between places. I have so capability here, but think I can combine my Amnesi-tac with your reflections. We can be creating pathways where no one can see, to our advantage.”
Draus narrowed her eyes. “Didn’t… didn’t you call it Amnesi-Tech earlier?”
“What?”
“Your new trick,” Draus said.
“I thought it was Amnitec,” Chambers muttered.
“I heard Amnistech,” Naeko replied.
“The fuck are all of you talking about?” Shotin said. “Because I sure as shit don’t rember any of these conversations.”
“Don’t like you as much as the others. Yet.”
“Yeah, well I can’t say you’re my favorite fucking flesh-eating monster either, Avo.”
“You would likely find more charming if I materialized breasts and a cavity that gives your genitals enjoyable feedback.”
A gagging noise sounded from the Seeker, and Chambers roared with laughter. “Boom, Dannis’d,” Chambers said.
Draus sneered at the surrounding flas as she shook her head. “Avo, have you been spendin’ a lot of ti with Chambers in your head?”
“No. Seeker’s just a supple target.”
The Regular’s eyes narrowed. “Soft, you an.”
“I said what I said.”
“Bring back the fucking rash,” Shotin said, swallowing mouthfuls of sour spit.
“Back to what matters. Draus. Want you to find the other mbers of our cadre. Want you to expand. And I want you to lead our forces in this war.” He focused on her for a long mont. “Thought of you as a gun for too long. You and I both. In more capacity than just that. You can find people, save people, lead people. I am…”
The flas that composed him quivered, turned inward. “I understand what you are, but I have not discovered what you have not tapped. It should be your life to lead. Your life to live.”
Draus frowned. “So, what then? What’s this supposed to an?”
“Took a peek into the minds of my war-chosen. See what you did. See how you’ve gone beyond just being a tool. Need you to keep going. I’m going to do for you what you did for . I’m going to culture everything I am capable in you as well. Let you have everything have. My templates—myself as a template. The fla will spread. You will stride. I will advise.
“For too long I have… taken. Taken. Given little. So. But I am selfish. Veylis was right. But we can be more. I can be more than old philosophies. Old habits. It’s ti for you to use as the sa—a governing intellect. A new set of decisions. We need to overwhelm the Infacer. Think beyond the present. He is used to facing . Will not make the sa mistakes next ti. So we won’t fight the sa war.”
“So wait, am I going gonna get to do the sa thing too? You’re gonna play advisor to ?” Chambers blinked.
Avo let out a grunting laugh. “Yes. Not the sa capacity. We need ans of unity. Of bonds. Of hope. Who else better than the one who survived? Who else better than the god of love?”
At this, Chambers winced. “I don’t know, Avo. I an, like, I managed to do a couple of things, but—”
“Chambers,” Avo said. “I understand. I have felt what you did through many lives—the insecurity. Lack of confidence. Traumas. You can give this responsibility to soone else. I will even accept it. But they will crumble too. Or they will succeed. You will crumble too. Or you will succeed. Nothing is guaranteed. Do not turn away right now. Do not run from what you could beco. Or do. But you will live with what burns inside your mind. Who do you want to be?”
Chambers opened and closed his mouth for several minutes before finally letting out a sigh and nodding.
“All right, cosang. All right, I’ll take a swing at it.” He chuckled. “No promises.”
“Nothing is ever promised. Naeko, I need you to continue being Chief Paladin, forcing peace. You are essential for any possibility of stability to co. More than any of us, you command respect. You command the faith of the people. They need sothing to believe in, just as they need sothing to love, just as they need soone to lead. You could be that. You can be more than anything you imagined yourself to be before.”
Naeko stared on blankly. “Avo… you know as good as I know myself right now, I—”
“No,” Avo shot back, “because you don’t know yourself. You think yourself defined because you failed once. Because you had miserable habits.”
Naeko blinked twice. “You really gonna describe what I did to Karakan as a miserable habit?”
“Well, we all have our vices. Eyeballs were juicy. I rembered that.”
The Chief Paladin of New Vultun snorted. “Yeah, I forgot. I was talking to a fucking monster. All right, Avo. Let’s run this shit. By the way, I got so questions. Chambers said–”
“Yes, Naeko, I can probably fix Stormjumpers. Getting to work might be useful for us to build influence. Train the war chosen.”
The Chief Paladin closed his hands and brought them to his lip. Slowly, he kissed his knuckles and closed his eyes. “There is beauty in the world still.”
“You fucking serious?” Draus muttered. “This is the shit that gets you off?”
Naeko eyed Paladin the Regular. “Hey, Draus, shut the fuck up, all right? So of us actually have a life.”
“I won’t—an I wouldn’t call it a life. Why do that shit when you can have the real thing.”
“You do not insult my record in Stormjumpers. Besides, the historical realism—”
“There are more accurate sims.”
“Don’t make smack you, Draus,” Naeko snapped.
The Regular sneered at him. “You reckon you’ll be fast enough to do that if I hit you with a disruption?”
The Chief Paladin’s jovial mood lted away. “What you gonna do after that?”
“Oh, you’re an old hand at this. You know what’s coming next.”
The Paladin and the Chief the Regular eyed each other for a long mont, neither breaking their gaze, before a loud cough sounded from Shotin.
“So, like, now, your mutual dick-sucking session’s great and all, but what about ? I’m invited here for a reason too, right?”
“Yes, Shotin, I need you to be my operative.”
Shotin blinked. “Your operative?”
“Yes. But before that—want to use you. To test a few things. To store a branch of ti within your Parallelist. And after that… would you like to do so hunting?”
“Hunting?” Shotin said. A gleam flashed behind his eyes.
“Yes. Want to see if we steal sothing from Omnitech alongside Kare? Let her have a little just vengeance. And you. Let you two burn down what’s left of Highfla while we’re at t.”
The Seeker froze. The Seeker’s face twitched. And slowly, he nodded. “You know what, Avo? I take what I said earlier back. I think we might just be very good consangs. Yet.”
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