Chapter 22-15 So Above

Chapter 22-15 So Above

Listen, lets not bullshit ourselves here: there are only a few situations in which we mask the egos of our finest Glaives and hide them up in the Purgatories.

And of all those reasons, its almost never because Highflame has their number, or a No-Dragon flesh-coded smart plague, or whatever nightmare Omnitech is cooking up. We know how they work, and it isnt that kind of subtle.

Theyll assassinate some of us. Sure. We do the same to them. But theyre fine with leaving evidence afterward because who gives it a shit? A dead Massist is a dead Massist. A dead Sainist is a dead Sainist. We dont bother hiding the blood on our hands.

We dont bother hiding the blood unless were doing it to members of our own family. More usually, we hide things after we commit acts against our Overkin.

Our clans fight.

Everyone knows this. everyone.

We might be bound by the same traditions, by the same culture, by the same language, by the same dream we seek. But the clans fight, because before we were a republic before we were united after the fall of the pantheons, we were apart, we were tethered by distant blood relations, by little jostling fiefdoms, fighting over who held what chain or what island.

Some of these grievances lasted since time immemorial. Some of them still last to this day.

I am telling you today, my fellow elders of the inner council, that we need to control our worst habits. We need to stamp down on inter-clan rivalry before it's too late.

We cannot be feuding and fighting among ourselves while we're also fighting Highflames forces, while we're also facing the No-Dragons latest plagues, while we're also trying to figure out how to break Omnitech encryptions.

We need to stand together.

Now more than ever.

And so I'm putting forward a proposal. Something Im uncertain will be supported, but I must attempt, at least in good conscience, at least a try.

I hereby propose that we fragment the mirrors over watching our cells.

As we have those facing outside preparing and defending against outer threats, so too should we have someone inside, making sure that our assets are not afraid of having their throats slit by those who are supposed to watch over them as they sleep.

I put forward this motion now in the separation of the convex and concave clauses.

The details are in the mem-data. Cast in, take a look. Understand. And I ask you to vote with me.

Again, we cannot lie to ourselves. The time for bloodying ourselves in the face of opposition is past. The stakes are impossibly higher. We cannot afford defeat.

Our oath is: Unity is destiny.

I think its about time we start acting like it.

-Elder Ganduuri Kazahara, Representative of Clan Kazahara (Circa 184 P.F., months before the Third Guild War)

22-15

So Above

Peering out at the resplendent streets of the Purgatory, Avo wondered how he could have ever believed himself to be a denizen of these heights.

Absurd though it might seem, his physical appearance was the easier thing to mask. A lie manageable by claims of augmentation and a desire to test the most extreme of sheath morphologies. Such eccentricity was common enough to earn him a reprieve from further attention.

No, the true test was being among humanity itself humanity in its most liberated form, its most hedonistic, unchained iteration, far beyond the constraints of meager survival.

Studying the busy district through the Tadpole's feeds, every inch of this cityscape was alive with motion. The district he passed over was called Grallo-Novrea. A place won by Ori-Thaum in the Third Guild War. A place they kept till the very present. As such, it bore all their staples in aesthetics and culture, and they made it known in ultimate fashion, by lacing every structure, every aspect of their city, with a fine sheen of vivianite.

Through the crystals gloving all other matter, ghosts flowed in unceasing streams, bounding through the linked minds of passing cliques. Life here was interconnected in a manner unparalleled. Interconnected, and monitored at all times.

This was a place of minds unchained, of thoughts unfettered, but it was also a place where those with the capability could gaze deep into anothers inner worlds, to glimpse that which was to be hidden, take things much rather forgotten.

A new dawn bathed the streets in jade hues, the light of the natural day kissing the viridescence of loci as the structures they encompassed rosed in jagged promontories.

More unnaturally, however, matter here flowed. Was partially fluid of nature, made so by the presence of a lingering miracle.

The Tiers were not limited to dead matter and the cold laws of reality. Imagination triumphed often over limitation here, and as Avos drone rounded a risen archway broadcasting the image of a woman wearing what looked to be an inflated suit per the latest fashion, he watched as people casually splashed down through sideways, leaped from the open doors of their aerovecs into buildings, vanishing past rippling waves.

{You know, we have much more mind-bending cityscapes in the Threshold. And some of the worlds we had were terraformed by smart-matter as well.} Calvinos tone was flat, but it was clear the EGI had something to prove.

Avo offered a grunt of acknowledgment instead of a proper reply.

Casting a splinter out from the drone, he too dove into the citys architecture, but he sought to immerse himself in the currents of mind rather than water-wrought miracles.

As he descended the nearest locus he could find, he noticed another peculiarity about the citythe sense that no structure here stood alone. Gone were the bulky, brutalist blocks of plascrete stacked upon the districts grid like a piece of a board. Gone were veins of traffic running between, of shifting life moving from place to place.

Whatever the case, he soon found that which he was looking for: sessions. Specifically, single-use sessions were only to be used in times of desperation to contact Elder DRongos most trusted Mirror-Concaves. Once, she knew their faces and names, but those memories had been extracted under the justification of security and redundancy.

Few knew her exact role in the clan, and even if someone penetrated her knowledge, they wouldnt be able to use her mem-data to uncover anything further.

This was the angle Avo obtained when he subsumed the node. This, and the awareness of other critical intermediary assets in Ori-Thaum. For all the secrecy they practiced, for all the decentralization and intrigue they exercised, there needed to be connective tissue between their elements for coordination. There needed to be bones tying their forces together.

That was what Avo could strike at. Infect. Through them, he could misdirect the ones that were hidden, open to direct attack.

As he copied the last of the twenty-six sessions, he spent the splinter inside her and created a hidden Auto-Seance for future access.

He didnt expect to be making a return visit but one never knew in this life. But if he did things right, no one would know anything was wrong until long after the Glaives left the Tiers.

Returning back to his sheath, Avo checked the progress of his other facets and found himself pleased. His splinters were spreading fast through the sanctuaries and Elegant-Moon actual self was finally reachable for synchronization.

Right then, other matters took priority.

Kae, Avo said. The Agnos turned, eyes wide.

Its time? She asked.

Yes, Avo said. He shot Draus a look as well, and the Regular responded in an instant. She flicked a shard of glass through one of her shimmering reflections, guiding it back across the Sunderwilds, back toward the border, back into New Vultun. Things were in motion now. Soon, Draus would find a usable extraction point in the city. Avo just needed to secure the Glaives and Incubi involved in Stillborn operation and get them to said place before anyone could respond.

Loading the first of the sessions into his Auto-Seance, Avo assembled an avatar based on Ireenis mem-data. With the warmind of Delusion, the process was instant and perfect in deception.

He triggered the call. A lull spread as his Metamind pulsed. One second. Two. Five. Twelve.

Are you. diving? Kae asked, mind tense and fists clenched. The others were also gathering close. Whats happening?

Before he could respond, an update flashed into his cog-feed.

SESSION ACCEPTED

Avo bared his fangs wide in a savage grin.

+Identifier: [3-OVELD-OVELD-SURNER-5-5-5-SURNER-DO YOU REMEMBER WERE JAUS WAS BURIED]. Response sequence.+

+In our dreams. He is buried in our dreams.+ Avo broadcasted the collection moods, visual patterns, and audio hallucinations required to certify his identity within a manifested splinter. The Mirror-Concaves mind was a miasma of checkpoints, chokepoints, and mem-cons. The man had more information hidden from himself than actual recallable moments.

Even so, Avo slithered deeper into him, rooting past the wards in anticipation of what was to come.

+Confirmed. You have thirty seconds for data+



+An attack is imminent,+ Avo said, casting over false data. Using Delusion, he compiled memories hinting at Shotin Kazaharas involvement behind the incident at the Trident and connected it with recent hostilities between the clans. +Critical deep cover assets compromised. Recommend immediate evacuation and sequencing of new cover identities.+

Cold fear flowed through the Concave. Immediately, his ghosts came alive with activity, reacting to the information. +Affirmative. Proceeding to Winter Protocols. Fragmenting sequence. Going dark.+



+Unity is destiny,+ Avo said.

+Unity is destiny,+ came the reply.

As the Mirror-Concave ended the session, Avo remained with him as a splinter, patching into the mans cog-feed to take in his surroundings. The ceiling whirled to the side as the Concave disconnected from his jack station. Swinging himself over the side and nearly tumbling from the nausea of being under for too long, he stumbled toward his closet to grab his outwear.

Knowledge flowed into Avos mind as his newest asset continued his preparations. DRongos Glaives were hidden well. Severed from the Nether and hidden in various planes or prisons, requiring physical retrieval.

Such was why Avo held back from burning the Concave. Such was why he continued to cast the others as this one stepped into his personal hanger and activated the engine of his aerovec. In twenty minutes, he would be taking a trip down into the basement of a local cocktail lounge where hed ask for the restricted content.

There, he was to receive a wine barrel. A wine barrel that held a planar pocket housing one of the twenty-six survivors leftover from the Stillborn operation.

Ori-Thaum was thorough. Ori-Thaum was careful. Ori-Thaum was paranoid.

But you could be all these things and still lose. You could be all these things and still be preyed upon. Some part of Avo felt bemused at the horror he had become, a creature no ordinary Necro could detector even stop him anymore.

Then, he remembered the fact that these people ignited Kaes mind due to stoked fears, and realized the rules were never real in the first place.

New Vultun took. So did the Guilds. So did he.

He was just the more impressive predator.