Chapter 14-11 Facets of Truth

Chapter 14-11 Facets of Truth

We have no idea where Concave-Shadow is, only that he appears to have shit all over his office floor before disappearing.

Why?

I dont know why. Dont ask me why. If I knew why, I wouldnt have said We have no idea where Concave-Shadow is.

The strike cell is missing too for that matter. Unfortunately, they didnt even leave us shit as a clue.

Just nothing.

Something smellsI dont mean the literal shit Im staring at, I mean the situation in general. You should hear the chatter on my endthe inner halls are throwing a fit! Over twenty Incubi nulled in a single operation and now this.

Do I think its a Highflame warning for us trying to jack into the Greatling?

Do I think Highflame broke into one of our secure facilities, disappeared one of our Concaves, smeared his feces all over the floor, and just pissed off afterward without doing anything else?

No! No, its not Highflame. I have no idea who did thisnone of this makes any sense!

-Thoughtcast between Concave [Redacted] and Incubus [Redacted], Ori-Thaum

14-11

Facets of Truth

+Holy shit, thats a lot to take in,+ White-Rab muttered.

+Yeah,+ Avo grunted. +Lies and misdirections and falsehoods and missing details.+ He studied the accretion around the Wight as its flow turned inward. The other Necro was considering something. Avo still wasnt sure how much to trust him, but right now, it seemed like the other two were more lacking in knowledge than he was.

Strange how these things turned out; he came to seek revelations connected to his past, but now found himself an educator of hidden esoterica and forbidden histories.

He hadnt given them the full scope of what he knewmaking them aware of the Hungers without necessity struck him as careless at best, and foolish at worst, but with what insight he gave regarding Walton, things gradually came together in White-Rabs mind.

+Well, I guess that explains his skill. I always thought he was too good. I mean, Im too goodbut he was something else. He could spot the smallest inconsistencies in sequences and mem-data like nothing. It was like hed been through everything already at least once.+ White-Rab paused. +Fuck, Ive been jealous of an immortal mind-replicator. I dont know what this is going to do to my ego. On one hand, I might just be the best human Necrojack there was, and on the other end, theres shit like the Low Masters swimming around in the dark.+



+And me,+ Avo added.

A bad thing about instilling yourself with humanity is all that tender social tissue comes with it. You start feeling hurt about not being respected, or left out.

From inside the Wight, White-Rab winced. +Well, I mean youyoure probably pretty threatening theoretically but uh, I gotta be honest here, consang most of us dont die from thoughtwave disruptions. We just forget things. Its not great with the intimidation factor. The whole blood-puppeting-burning-thoughtfire is nice though. I gotta say.+

Avo glared at his cognitive donor as hard as he could through his proxy. His perception tightened into condensed rods of attention, and he considered casting himself into the Wight and branding some respect into White-Rab.

Abrel agreed. [Fuck this guy. I hate his type. Hes not willing to call you a joke to your face, so he tries to make you feel better. Real glassjaw shit. Eat his brain, Avo. Wait, eat the Stormtree sow in front of him first. Thats the kind of cruelty that greases your steel, right?]

The aero around them rattled. Avo felt an unnatural vibration of force surge through his proxy.

He turned his focus back over the Reva Javvers. While he had been pouring his ire onto White-Rab, she reciprocated unto him. Try it. You move, and if he doesnt get you, I will.

They were assured by false hopes. Neither of them had the capability to finish him this time. Even if he lost his proxy to them, he could just send another, or start striking at them from apart using his Heavens. So long as he severed the link between him and the proxy in time, all they could take from him were a few paltry ghosts.

And somehow, knowing he could kill both of them reduced the spice of a potential fight. Loathe as he was to admit it, his engagements with Zein had always been stimulating if nothing else.

Uncertainty was a gift to the senses, and a variety of possible outcomes whittled away the boredom when faced with arduous tasks.

He continued with his diplomacy more out of novelty alone than anything else.

+Lets get back to the topic at hand,+ Avo said. +You said you had something for me from Walton. I want to see it.+

White-Rab coughed. +Oh, yeah, right. That. So, I couldnt exactly access it. Dont have the right sequence of memories. But Ive been holding onto it for you. Whats say we link and I show you what Ive been doing.+

+No link,+ Avo said. +Connect to me deeper than my thoughtstuff and my ego spreads into you. Like a plague. Or a wildfire. Wont survive the experience. But I will remember you.+

He meant that in more ways than one.

Siphoning away some blood from his proxy, he formed a locus right next to Reva, and she eyed the crimson crystal with open suspicion. Your bloods vivianite.

+You already know that,+ Avo said. +The texture is familiar to you. And your ghosts can rest inside.+

She nodded, and a begrudging look of acceptance passed behind her eyes. Its a neat canon. Got a name for it.

The truly amusing thing was that the servants of Jaus didnt even know the harm they were causing. They just thought it was a Necro-thaumic reaction related to the Nether. He left them ignorant of just what they were stripping away to create a perpetual and metaphysical instance of ones own mind.

The ghouls were a fitting stopgap for the agony with their replaceability and willingness toward worship. Still, their minds were only plugs damming what was being drawn from the Hungers. Already, he could see further changes in the behavior of his masters.

Before, they had been depraved, and violence, and merciful, and sullen.

Now, increasingly, they fit their title.

Hungry. Hateful. Rageful.

A diet composed so much of who a person was.

If only everyone could subsist on tangerines or oranges. Idheim would have been a much happier place.

Alas.

He found himself walking the mangled graves where once stood the Warrens. The devastation the Guilds had wrought from fighting each other far exceeded anything the Uprising demanded.

Such was one aspect of his work that he quite appreciatedhis ghouls performed their duty and triggered the war just as anticipated. Once they unbalanced Ori-Thaums annual tax sufficiently, that was all it took to convince Highflame to strike.

Of course, the Chivalrics were always easy to entice.

Still, it was a shame so many of his children had to be butchered like this. The other branches didnt care, but he had always felt a sense of pity when it came to their personal monsters.

The ghouls had no choice in this affairno purpose beyond to spread and die and spread and die and spread as much as they possibly could.

With the Guilds mastery of biology, he doubted his ghouls would endure a full century.

But if Thousandhand was right about the Ladder returning, then perhaps things werent going to last that long.

A shiver of movement caught his attention. The sheer weight of secondhand starvation striking him kept it.

He stopped in place and finally found himself standing in a playground, judging a small, pale figure reaching a claw up to the sky for salvation.

A ghoul?

And this far from the underground.

It mustve had quite the journey to survive.

With his footsteps announced by breaking glass and clicking debris, he cast his ghosts out to greet the subject of his fascination.

When he latched onto its mind, he felt himself experiencing the near-delirium of despair and hunger, and in the pinprick of consciousness remaining within it, he realized it had noticed him as well, though it deemed him a figment of his fever dreams.

Now such sophistication of thought was quite unlike a ghoul. Its parent stock mustve been of good quality to ensure such cognitive complexity.

Digging past its pain and torment, he settled his ghosts in the depths of its mind and considered his first words. Simply saying hello wouldnt doit had more pressing concerns.

Then, it occurred to him.

He would cede the choice to the creature. Let it decide how this conversation goes.

Yes, why not? Why not let the ghoul make a choice, if only the last one in its life?

+Do you wish to live?+ he asked.

Though he sent these words as a question, there was a good chance the malnutrition had run its course and there was no road back.

But this was about the present, and now the future.

He wondered what the ghoul would say.

Yes, he heard it rasp. Yes

Avo shook himself loose from the memories and let out a breath.

It was a lot. It meant a lot.

It meant he wasnt just a loose compilation of desired thoughts, and that there was, at least, a point of inception he could call his own.

He was real.

Real enough, anyway.