Chapter 13-5 Breather

Chapter 13-5 Breather

+ATTENTION+

PRIORITY 1 ALERT INBOUND:

BEGINNING PROXY SYNC



Good morning, Glaives,

Approximately six hours ago last night, one of our cells was exposed and burned. Details can be found within the mem-data bearing the task designation Broken Glass

Effective immediately, all contacted Glaive teams are to enter the Yuulden-Yang Sovereignty to find and extract missing Incubi assets.

Or terminate should the need arise.

As the Nether is down, we will be running locus-link configurations between each kill team.

Good hunting consangs

+//+

Incubi,

From sequences of memory glimpsed from the Registry, we have positive confirmation of essential interest entity Kae Kusanade sighted in the Xin Yunsha district from the establishment Second Fortune.

We are dead-dropping new proxy minds and have new bio-sculpts prepared. You are to enter the district and maintain your current cover until the Nether stabilizes. During this time, you are to scout and establish forward-scrying posts and procure any and all details relating to the essential interest entity.

Again, this is scrying detail. No assassinations. No obvious nullings.

Collect mem-data connected to the essential interest entity. Transfer data to your Convex. Burn your proxy. Extract.

Nothing more.

-Glaive Cross-Cell Priority Alerts

13-5

Breather

Kae wasnt very good at suicide, but she managed it with enough encouragement.

She managed to miss her first shot by flinching away from her gun even before she pulled the trigger. Such evasion came with its own cost, for when she ducked aside, she still squeezed the trigger, and thus the flechette, once intended for her, made a pitstop through Chambers throat before skipping off from the stone outcropping forming the stairway entrance.

There was something amusing about how the man just toppled over with a gurgling spray. The effect was multiplied as all turned away from him, ignoring his choking gurgles while he slowly passed, choosing instead to assist the Agnos in achieving such an end as well.

Nervousness ruined her second try and Chambers sudden resurrection made her miss the third.

On the fourth she finally succeeded by tucking the gun under her chin instead, placing her thumbs against the trigger and trying to win a staredown against the pistol.

The end came quickly for her. A flashing pulse of the guns coils preceded a spread of erupting brain matter.

From there, it was a simple matter of seizing her with his Soulfire and grafting her into the thaumic heart of her new ontology.

And thats all it took, huh, Cas breathed. His gaze swept down from Avo to Kaes still form, her right eye hollow of the crystalline orb she used to channel her False Heaven. Her face was frozen in an open-eyed look of startlement, as if not expecting the instant of her demise despite serving as her own executioner.

You got her? Draus asked, sounding more than a little sour about the entire affair. She hadnt been against Kaes decision to become a Godclad, but there was something undeniably strange about curing the Agnos of her mental damage only to kill her right afterward.

There was a sublime, special madness to the act.

Shes grafted, Avo said. He shed the other Soul from his orbit with a gentle push of his animated radiance and waited. When Kae returned, she would possess all ontologics and thaums held by the previous user of the Aegis of Tides, sans the cycler that Avo took. Took a cycler away from her. Want you to have it. Increase your survivability. More chances at resurrection.

The Regular paused to consider what he just said. She cast a brief look at Chambers and Essus, the latter looking slightly more put together than he was earlier. There was still a dullness to his stare, but at least he seemed more aware of his surroundings, no longer drowning in his own thoughts.

Yeah, Draus said. Probably the right call. Probably. How longs Kae got before she comes back?

Not long, Avo said, guessing more than knowing. Probably has her cyclers working at

And before he could finish, the subject of their inquiry returned to reality through the Soul-made scar marring the tapestry of existence.

She ended up stumbling over her own corpse as she got back, arms spinning in circles as she fought for balance. Avo reached out but Draus caught her first, preventing the fall before it could transpire.

No, he reiterated. Only Godclads and FATED are ensured from death. Should tell you something. Wont tell you I care about the people I kill and eat. Good and bad. Theres no weight for me there. But there are also choices. Mistakes. Trying not to kill the choiceless and meek. Trying to hunt only others with teeth like mine.

What about the few hundred thousand you nulled? Sunrise said. Did they bear teeth?

Yes. Brittle teeth. Still teeth. Still proper meat. Watched the FATELESS die. Supported the killings with their imps. Fair prey. Not my fault they lived they way the did. Only my choice to hurt them.

The swarm curved back, the bees folding around his head like a screen. You look for reasons to hurt and kill people.

Yes.

How do you know you will not slip from your reasoning?

I dont, Avo said. But Draus will probably try to kill me for good. Will notice then. Be a shame to eat her.

The Regulars murmur came through the veil of insects. Youre gonna be regrettin them words when I skin you to make myself new leathers. He snapped his teeth in her general direction and the bees flinched back.

Have a question for you now, Avo said, turning his focus back to the bioform before him. What are you? You person? A mind piloting a swarm.

I am a fully uplifted citizen recognized by the rights of the Sol Sophancy Charter. I was incepted legally and consensually from the mind of a quartet and was originally engineered to live and aid in the ecological adaption of planetary bodies.

You were an engineer? Avo asked. Always been a swarm?

Always, Sunrise said. I could have chosen to be resheathed in another morphology, but I have never wanted for more than this form. It has proven useful for clandestine work, as my continued survival can attest.

Avo disconnected from the loci and gave his full attention over to this conversation. Whats life like in the void?

From these few words followed a heavy silence. The swarm turned to each other as if each individual bug was consulting another. The thrumming of their wingbeats grew louder and Avo could feel the heat building from their bulk. But then, all at once, the swarm went silent and they all turned back to him. Pleasant. Quiet. Fearful. Forlorn. Forlorn.

Fornlorn, Avo said. Why?

Our lives are good still, but we are shadows of shadows. We remember a time when civilizations piloted a fleet of stars, when war was but a passing dispute without any lasting fatalities, when all was provided and expression was unchained. Now, we live in comfort, but dull ourselves on pleasure against the fear.

What are you afraid of, Avo asked.

You, Sunrise said. They shared a mutual sense of honesty between their natures. Something about that pleased Avo, while another part of his mind questioned if the bioform was just leading him on. The gods. The Heavens. The Ruptures. Thaumaturgy. The eldritch. We fear all that brought us to this point. And we fear what has become of you.

Why dont you use the gods? Use Necrotheurgy.

The bioforms collective shuffled with discomfort. Do you know what the void looks like beyond this place? This placid planet?

Placid? Avo said, narrowing his eyes. Idheim?

Civilization is still supported. Reality still retains primary control. Placid is the right word.

That put things into perspective.

Everything outside is part of the Sunderwilds? Spreading Ruptures across the stars?

There arent so many stars anymore, Sunrise said. Not true stars anyway. And from them comes the wrong

Come to think of it, quite a gulf of time had passed since the Guilds announced a Godhunt. These had been quiet monthsif there were outsider gods spotted, all Fallwalkers and Guilders of capability would be preparing to reap a new bounty of Soul.

In some ways, Voidwatch was the only reason Idheim hadnt collapsed. In others, the terrestrial powers gleefully threw themselves forth into the jaws of certain oblivion to face foes the reality-bound voiders never could.

He considered broaching a new request with the bioform to ask that it share the inhuman magic-born cognition infusing its thoughtstuff. The veil of pure technology was still hard to pierce, but he increasingly found himself interested in the fundamentals of things. If he was going to build new Heavens with Kae, learning more about the foundational sinews of reality could

A string of mem-data flashed over his cog-feed. So deep in his own thoughts he almost missed itand would have ignored it if not for the name.

AUTO-SEANCE CONNECTION: ABREL GREATLING ONLINE

Avo? Sunrise asked, drifting in. Avo, are you well.

Yes, Avo breathed, clicking his teeth together in slavering anticipation.

She had been spared death at the last minute back in Lights End. Spared death, but not freed from his touch.

Perhaps her continued survival was for the best. He did need someone to test his new phantasmics one, and if there was a chance, she could be used to help him anticipate the Paladins themselves.

Yes. Yes, it was a good thing he didnt get to torture, kill, and devour the Greatling.

Not when she offered another avenue of opportunity