Chapter 14-5 Ignorance

Chapter 14-5 Ignorance

Sometimes, shit goes wrong and its not your fault. You did everything right. Everything you could. Got all the kit; shaped the situation; snuffed all the half-strands that needed snuffing.

Then, in a fraction of a second, you go from gleaming to rusted and everythings fucked.

Just fucked.

When you get hereand you will find yourself here if youre gonna squire for any amount of time at alltake a breath, and accept the situation.

A lot of people get killed because they fixate on concepts like fair and in another life. Its a waste of time. The past is done. You move and you fight. You live for tomorrow by handling the present.

Take stock of what you got. Take stock of what you can still do and who you can trust. Then, do what you can with what you got. Knock the entire board over again if you have to. Sell all the mem-data you got and spark another gutter war as cover. Or maybe cash an ugly favor thats going to bleed you down the line.

Do whatever it takes to make it.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

Dont sit around asking why. Youre in New Vultun, consang. This city doesnt care about you unless you're dead, and the worlds the same way. You gotta treat it cold right back if you want to make it out.

Accept. Adapt. Move on.

And maybe youll just live.

-Quail Tavers, School of the Warrens

14-5

Ignorance

The suddenness of Avos assault took even him by surprise.

There was something elemental in his compulsion to attacklike fire striking gas, he just had to burn.

More than bloodlust or allure, there was a need to become more, to seize another frontier of reality for his own. Zein was, so Zein could become his.

That was all the incentive he needed and from the flattened waves of subconsciousness rose an all-consuming tsunami of intent propelling him into bloodshed.

His ego seared through the air in a sub-fraction of a second. Zein, her face deliciously alight with confusion and shock, remained still. Jagged ghosts lashed free in a chain of explosions untangling from the wildfire that was her mind. The old womans wards halted him for but a single instant in timeher bladed phantasmic stabbing into the inferno only to be melted away.

A flash of insight crossed over as he pried her outer thoughts open. Knowledge-lust and hunger merged into a singular concept. His jubilant cruelty walked behind genuine curiosity to know what it was like to be Zein Thousandhand.

He never got the chance.

A section of chronology folded over itself as all that he imbibed from Zein was rendered null. The memories and thoughts he remembered taking from her faded into the mists of confusion.

Inside himself, he felt the bridge of ignorance resonate with the action she just performed.

[Whatever she just did wouldve nulled a solid-structured mind.]

[She just undid one of our actions somehow. Think that makes knowing about what we took from her impossible.]

[We need her Heaven. We need her knowledge. We need her skill.]

He needed to be her.

Spinning on his heels, he drew upon Andragas near-term memories and finally realized Zein was anticipating an attack, that she had pressured the Scaarthian Godclad to flush out their stalker.

From behind, Avo heard the whistle of a fast blade licking through the air and turned slowly to greet Zein once more.

As he faced her, he found a look of disconcerting pleasure written upon her mien, the transparent faceplate of her helmet only adding to the gleam in her eyes. Compliments are in order. That was most unexpected. She turned the glaive in her hand, and as light infused the flat of the blade with reflection, Avo found his attention parried from looking upon his current form.

[We still have the Incog running.]

[She perceives us without issue.]

[Heaven?]

[Must be. Something that deviates her mind. Maybe puts it ahead of time or another canon capable of the same effect.]

New tracks coiled out from Zeins person, each of them scheming exponentially as he caught glimpses of the Fisher drawing its hook forward through time. Her face with frozen halfway between confusion and genuine joy when the door behind her opened.

A beam of ghosts darted out from her mind and stung their way through the mind standing just behind the door.

Tension spiked inside Avo as reviewed his memories.

There had been no one near them in the area. No one near them for at least five hundred feet. His subminds had been monitoring signatures of thoughtsuff in his surroundings even through the process of burning himself into Andraga.

[Zein. She brought them here.]

[Why?]

He braced himself for anything.

And as the door fully opened, he found himself staring at a small figure just below six feet. He wore a technician's utility vest, and he entered the room in a state of befuddlement and confusion, with each step taken a stagger. It looked like he was sleepwalking.

Judging from the haze coating the mans thoughtstuff, sleepwalking wasnt far off.

Yes, Avo said. Will need to take that into account when I return. That put a pause in his thoughts. Where will I return?

Where you died, the Galeslither answered. Our weight remains laden in the real. There is more than one dimension to existence, but all rest atop or below the real. The Nether is the sky. And this prison is one of the many undergrounds.

Nursing on the words offered by his Heavens, he dove down into his root data to see if he could uncover anything different. Already, performing such tasks manually felt troublesome to him. After hours of his thoughts and actions being intertwined, returning to inefficiency was a punishment in itself.

Again, the allegory of the cave returned. Exile from power was a torture all its own.

Going through the mem-data, he went over several facts in quick succession as the information loaded into his meta-consciousness.

The first was that the option of reverting to his prior mind-state was ridden with erroneous data and that the structure he used to retain was riddled with absences.

From what he could tell, this meant that he could return as a base-consciousness entity, but he could manifest existence mostly nulled due to the damages inflicted upon him.

He had a sneaking suspicion that likely had much to do with the war mind the Low Masters unleashed upon him, and the ignorance embedded into his being.

Interestingly, none of the bodies he installed his mind in over the past hours were options for a vessel when he completed his resurrection. Though they had been encoded into his Frame, they werent technically a part of him, instead existing like part of an existential log of some kind.

Apparently, for him to fully embody a new sheathe, he needed to internalize that he was the body. That mean his base-mind needed to be blinded as well.

Perhaps he could put in a trigger to rouse himself between ego-states? Switch consciousnesses? He wondered why his subminds werent down in his Frame with him as well and found himself left with only theories. He still had the memories and learning he harvested from his recent prey, and among them was a recollection of something called the theory of liminal separation.

Apparently, the Nether, as stated by the Woundshaper, existed atop reality while the Frames and Heavens existed beneath. The mem-data within a Frame, meanwhile, was but a narrative facsimile meant to mimic the true thing. It was only when a being was resurrected and thrust back into the cross-planar junction that was the real in which all these aspects were allowed to be rejoined.

With this came a new considerationa potential for improvement and added functionality even in death. If he could somehow access the material world using something like Kaes right eye even when dead, could he somehow use it to develop a bridge up into the Nether itself?

Putting the idea in reserve, he tuned the pace of his resurrection cycle to the max and prepared himself.

Zein may have gotten the better of himagainbut she still seemed discombobulated by his new form, unable to fully peer into the future surrounding him due to the Conflagration he was channeling, if her prior encounters with Kae gave him any perspective.

All he needed to do now was to keep her off balance. Build false patterns of behavior to lure her in and then exploit her counterattack with one of his own.

Yes. More layers to his planning would serve him well. He would direct his subminds to generate more schemes on his behalf once he returned.

RESURRECTION - 89%

Surfacing back into the central boundaries of his Frame, he regarded the Woundshaper and Galeslither bickering with each other once more.

Two Heavens. Two was not enough. He was playing too cautiously right now. He would gather more knowledgemore thaumaturgic understanding and set above redesigning his limitations. He wondered what it would take to convince Kae to let him burn her mind into his as a template, but even without his subminds simulations, he knew that to be a difficult ask, and Draus would likely make a good go on seeing him turned truly dead if he deliberately hurt Kae in some way.

But he could. And wouldnt it feel thrilling to hurt her just to make the Regular know that she couldnt do anything?

Avo turned. His fire turned inward.

That thought that thought was unnaturally intrusive. It was certainly his but Something like that had never happened in his Frame before. His control here was always superior. Well, until his shift into his thoughtform

Did you hear what I just thought? Avo asked his Heavens.

About expanding your internal pantheon? the Woundshaper said. I recommend having only a few of us. Too many gods are unreliable. Quantity is not true substitute for quality, master.

He waited to see if the Galeslither would say anything. The triple-headed steed just huffed.

RESURRECTION - 99%

Shedding his suspicions for now, he prepared himself for his return. He hoped that Zein wasnt already gone by the time he got back and that he would have another chance at subsuming her mind.

As threads of radiance pulled taut around him, his Frame burrowed into existence once more and injected him back into reality. He spawned out from the blood left by Andraga, each thread sewing him back into fullness as he manifested in the maintenance room.

His mind swelled like a scything blaze spreading wide, and he found Zein Thousandhand leaning against the wall not four feet away.

Upon his return, a path of time descended on her and the tracks accelerated through her mind. Her stare narrowed for a moment before they widened. Oh, you are Strixs pride. I see. My other instance was more familiar with you. I had to dip into her allotted paths to get all the details. Most impressive growth. She clapped honestly.

Remember me now? Avo asked.

[Building new behavior chains to exploit her counterattack.]

She nodded. Quite. Well. I borrowed experiences and secondhand explanations from my own future. I dont rightly remember the last time I had to have a conversation with myself to comprehend a situation. Why, if it wasnt for the distinctiveness of your morphology, I wouldnt have had much to go at all with that confusing mind of yours. Your father would be proud, but disturbed.

Avo widened his fangs. Not my father. Im more. I can be everyone.

Zein smiled congenially. Yes. Youre also exceeding vulnerable to Thoughtwave Disruptions if my memories on the Conflagrations serves me correctl

He attacked.

She instantly bathed him in a concentrated cone of thought-rending data.

RESURRECTION - 1%

Dammit! Half-strand Zein!



A neighing laugh came from within his Frame. Are we having difficulties, master? Is your all-consuming mind failing you?Mule. Shut up.

The Galeslither did so happily.