“You have been staring at my back for the past fifteen minutes Talen. Have you completed your thoughts and co to a conclusion?” Urs asked, ditating in the garden.
He was currently replotting his flowers, and taking great care in doing so. The entire ti, one single human was lurking in the shadows further behind. Contemplating.
Urs decided it was ti to draw him out.
Talen stiffened, then walked out into the light, knowing there was no pretending otherwise. “I shouldn’t have been surprised you’d know I was here. You really do have eyes on the back of your neck.”
“I do not. That would appear very strange. They are located in the walls far above, and have high magnification abilities.” Urs said, slowly covering dirt over the final tulip.
A nice shade of violet. It complinted the gold poppies he’d put down.
“I need to confess sothing.” Talen said.
“It must be important if you remained still for a quarter of an hour. What troubles you?”
“There is… another person.”
“There are many of those, yes.” Urs said, moving onto the next part of his garden. “You have collected quite the number of followers thus far. What makes this person more important?”
He hoped it wasn’t so kind of human drama. He preferred the quiet grove here for a reason. Each ti he'd set out with Talen, the adventure had usually involved quite a few other people. At least Talen handled most of the talking for them, so it was far more pleasant.
Talen took a breath and finally spoke what was on his mind: “All those years back? I didn’t stumble on your grove here by accident. I was looking for you.”
“I know.” Urs nodded to the flower in front of him. “You have already hinted in prior discussions that you had set out specifically in search of , or rather the one who crafts the armors. The mites led you to my general location and you stumbled on the rest during your fight against that machine.”
After they'd t, both of them had gone out to go hunt after the renegade machine that had thrown Talen through his roof. It was quite the fight. Apparently Relinquished was starting to disapprove of Talen, at least enough to send out her stronger units to go handle him.
But Talen remained silent behind Urs, which ant... “The mites did not send you?” Urs asked, more confused. He even stopped tending to his plants while he considered.
If not the mites, then who else? Talen certainly wasn’t working with any machines. Urs was quite certain he was fully committed to humanity’s cause. And the budding alliance of those seven core cities was already starting to be promising. Each ti they'd set out to explore, they'd find new signs of humanity hiding in the shadows and begin efforts into bringing them into the growing network.
Talen was a natural born leader. Urs had no doubts if there was anyone who could unite this many cities together, it would be Talen.
He was looking forward to seeing what his friend would end up as.
But what other faction would have been able to track him down? None of these cities had anywhere near the resources required to even guess at where his grove was.
“It’s soone I’ve been working with to pull everything together. And I don’t just an finding you. I an… everything. All of it." Talen started. "The alliances, the cities, everything. She’s been helping from the start. From the mont she found . Long before I found you or knew your na.”
“An elder? Who is she in this context?” Urs asked. A single human could certainly change quite a lot. Talen was an example, and in an odd way, Urs himself knew he had caused a drift in future history despite being a singular individual.
But if there was another human out there organizing logistics, he was more impressed he hadn’t heard of her yet. Although he had remained here for so ti now, letting Talen advance further down the stratas in his steed. The man was far more deadly than Urs would ever be. He was far more happy modifying the armors to Talen's specifications and requests.
“She’s been here before I was. She’s human, but not quite human anymore. Similar to yourself. She’s against revealing herself to you, even now. Constantly told not to take chances like this, but I’ve had enough. She's being a coward. You’re too important to simply leave out of the picture.”
“My importance is overstated.” Urs said. “I only update and improve your armor based on your feedback and suggestions, or build more for your followers. I am not involved in any other way beyond that. The occasional forays we do outside my grove are exceptions.”
“You’re an icon to people now Urs, you always were from the mont you put that userna down into that miteforge. Everyone knows your na, and so does she.” Talen took a breath. “She tracked you down before Relinquished could. And she’s been hiding your location from her this whole ti after.”
Urs finished plotting his last plant, then stood up to his full height. “She has been protecting from notice? That is rather kind of her. If she does not wish for to know her existence, I do not see a reason I need to be inford.”
He was plenty capable of keeping his own existence hidden from Relinquished, he’d been doing so this entire ti. The idea that another was doing that made little sense. Perhaps this collaborator was lying to his friend in order to overstate her importance. Many humans lied.
“It’s not about niceties.” Talen said, shaking his head. “It’s about the potential. She finally opened up and spoke to all those years ago, took a leap of faith on that potential. I was just another nomad mage, seeking knowledge and she happened to take a gamble on . Look where it got us. But she’s refused to make another move again. She moves too slowly, Urs. Like a mite mountain. Thinks over the span of centuries instead of single years. And we can’t keep moving along at this pace. You might be immortal Urs, but I’m not. Humanity isn’t. Look at all the good we’ve done together in only a few years. And look at all the good I’ve managed with her guidance here. Imagine what you and her could do together. And if I need to claw her out into the light and drag her here myself to make that happen, I will. I am.”
“You are making the attempt, yes.” Urs said, then finally turned and walked up to Talen, looking down at the younger man. “Very well. You are my friend, if you believe I should et this benefactor of yours, I will do so.”
More than just a friend. His only friend. The only person that ca here to his grove to talk. It had begun as a mutual business relationship, but enough ti had gone by that Urs began to believe Talen saw him as more than the armorsmith.
The younger man nodded, “Good. Good.” He unhooked a golden orb from his backpack. It glowed with power, and Urs could tell it was a mite-forged construction. His scans went through, licking every edge within, prying out the secrets. It was built to communicate across the occult. A mitelantern in a way, except far more specific and conventional task. Interesting. He had not yet seen a schematic like this.
“What is her na?” Urs asked, extending a hand out to take the orb from the man’s hand.
Talen took a breath. “Her na is Tsuya.”
“You’re… URS?” I asked in the silence that ca after those three words.
As in the one who crafted these armors. The one who worked hand in hand with Talen and Tsuya in fixing the world up.
The one Aztu had shared an entire record of.
The first human to actually end up on Relinquished’s most hated list.
And the one who’d created the Deathless.
The first Deathless.
All of that went unsaid in my stupefied question.
I could see the exact mont every knight here understood who this was. They all instantly took a knee, head bowed down in respect.
This wasn’t going to help with those prophet allegations I was currently wrapped into with them all.
Even Father seed a little stunned by this, slowly inclining his head in a very faint trace of acknowledgent. He still held the dead husk in one hand, ready with the other to stab in case of insanity.
“Yes. That is my userna.” Urs said. “Before my imprisonnt, Relinquished told she would wipe my na from the world. Eradicate everything I built, and crush every city I know the na of until only sand and ash remained where I once stood. You seem to recognize my na and use my armors despite that threat. I take it that her plans did not go as she had hoped?”
“No.” I said, trying to get myself back together to talk right. “Well, yes, she’s gotten so things done in the ti between the empire and now. But no, all of the surface knows your na. You’re a god among my people.”
“A god on the surface?” Urs sounded mildly shocked about that. "Before I cause any theological issues, are you aware of who Tsuya is?"
I nodded. "She's human. A human soul mixed with a golden age military AI at the last second."
"Close enough. She only had access to that AI's full capabilities for twelve or thirteen seconds before the core was destroyed and its ability to calculate gone with it. In that span of ti she managed quite a lot of items including a near deathblow on Relinquished, and the entire plan to hide the surface. Part of that plan was the surface clans. Tsuya created your culture and mythos to assist with the surface culture’s isolation. In that original mythos, there was only one god, herself. So you see my confusion on being called a god. I have only visited the surface a few tis in the past, long after she had completed her goals. And only to assist in creating imperial temples for futureproofing, while Talen handled affairs further out into orbit. But nothing we have done would have filtered into mythos of the surface clans. We were very circumspect in our dealings with the surface.”
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I shrugged. “I don’t really have an answer for you. You’re known as one of the three gods, along with Talen and Tsuya. One of the three satellites that fly around the world is nad after you. You’re sung about as often as the other two are.”
“Interesting.” Urs said. And he sounded like he ant it. “It would need to be a deliberate change and adjustnt. One only Tsuya could do herself. And I do not see any pragmatic reason she would have modified it. This changes so aspects of her I had disregarded prior.”
“Changes what?”
“I always assud she was lying to us when she called us her true friends and peers.” Urs said. “Tsuya had no equal. She was far older than any of us could be. I believed she saw us as tools. Friendly. But never comrades. Even after all the ti I spent with her in the digital sea. Her isolation from humanity during the dark ages seeing humanity as numbers and statistics would have made it hard for her to be friends with anyone. Hence why I did not believe her. Even during the empire's creation and managent, she still seed to hold everyone at a distance.” The blue eyes looked up, past the confines of the prison here. “I see her actions. She has placed us on the sa rank as herself, in her own way. I feel regret for not having believed her all those years prior. I owe her an apology then. Was she searching for this whole ti?”
“Yes.” I said, holding up the miteseeker. “She went through a lot of hoops to get us here. She’s been looking for you for a very long ti now.”
“How did she manage to do so without A01 or the others foiling your path? They would have been dispatched here to eliminate you.”
“Uh, they rebelled.”
The blue eyes looked over to now, “They... rebelled? I do not understand. Why would they? They had won, completely. I was the last holdout keeping the empire together, and I was already losing.”
Father’s eyes started flashing blue, sending a data package. Urs received it. Then humd in thought. “I see. That changes much. I only wished they had co to those senses while Talen and I remained in action. I am thankful Tsuya escaped despite their defeat. I would like to speak to her if possible, there is much I need to go over.”
“About that.” I took a breath, holding a hand out to Father. This, I felt, should be spoken out loud. Not sent over a data package. “I have bad tidings. And I wish I could co with better news. But we didn’t co here looking for you in specific. We ca here looking for a miracle, or anything Tsuya left behind.”
“Left behind.” Urs repeated. “...Sothing has happened to her. Hasn’t it?”
“Yes. She’s been killed. Relinquished caught and snuffed her out. I’m sorry. We…” I looked down, then back up. “We led Relinquished directly to Tsuya by accident. We were trying to free a Feather from the Unity fractal, and were following mites, thinking they were on our side.”
“The mites are seldom on anyone’s side for long.” Urs said. “They are a chaotic force with their own goals. I know them well."
The husk seed to pause for a mont, then the blue eyes looked directly at . I couldn't read any kind of emotion on the skeletal features, but Urs also probably couldn't move anything at all besides his eyes. "I had assud she was killed like Talen was all these years ago. I only briefly felt hope now that she had lived. Tell what happened. We do not have much ti if Tsuya has only recently died. Much of the world was held together by her control.”
I looked at Father and gave him a nod. His eyes flashed blue again.
“Ah.” Urs said. “I see. The situation is dire.”
“We were hoping you’d know what to do. The miteseeker led us here, but none of us knew what was at the end. Tsuya thought it would be a weapon. Maybe sothing that can turn the tides back. You were the original Deathless, can we restore you back to your full body?”
The husk’s eyes looked over the people here, then back at . “In my pri, I could restore myself at any pillar heart within minutes of dying. Unfortunately, I am in no condition to do so anymore. Not in the speed you will need.”
Father’s head turned to the massive spear above us, staring at it with intensity. “That has been steadily corrupting you, hasn’t it?”
“Indeed. The smaller variations used by the protofeathers in hunting down were difficult enough to handle. The larger size here overwheld my ability by scale. And has been steadily continuing for centuries. If I die as I am this mont, I anticipate three to five months before my body is reconstituted at a pillar heart. I will be restored, but not in the ti you need . I suspect Relinquished will arrive on the surface within a few days and will target the satellites first. The clans will be a distant priority to her.”
I could see why. Given what those satellites could do. “She’ll rip down the only defense the surface has against her.”
“No.” Urs said. “They are not what you think they are.”
"They're not weapons?"
"They are not. They can be used as such, but their primary purpose was not intended as weapons."
“If not the weapons of gods, what are they?” Father asked.
“Terraforming platforms.” Urs said. “Built in the golden age to reshape Mars and the Moon into planets that could support life. They were left unmanned, almost forgotten about during the end of the golden age. Many orbital vehicles and equipnt was. In using the military AI, Tsuya was able uncover historical data that she used to rediscover their location in space. She then powered them back on, and re-orbited all three around the world."
"Why terraforming platforms?" I asked. "Wouldn't she want weapons or ships that could fight?"
"Those were destroyed by Relinquished. Terraforming platforms were construction equipnt, and Relinquished did not consider them a threat nor high on the priority list of targets. Once she had full control over the world, they had long since drifted too far into distant orbits for her to track down. They were lost in space, so to speak."
"What happened after she brought them back into orbit?" Father asked.
The blue eyes turned to him. "Tsuya used them to cause catastrophic damage to the surface in parallel with the mites working under the surface. Effectively re-using both of their terraforming functions to condemn the surface into a highly specific near-inhospitable state. Doing so forced most humans away from the surface, but still allowed the desperate to remain behind as backup humans safe from Relinquished. She then setup the excess power discharge to be aid at the surface. That was intended to keep the surface powered for life, in addition to unleashing genetically modified plants, fungi and insects that would allow humanity to survive.It was well planned so that the surface would be just inhospitable enough to force most people to avoid it, yet survivable enough that so still would venture there. Everything had been accounted for. Weather patterns, air pressure, temperature, even the deals with the mites. To ensure they would continue producing and pushing up highly specialized colony structures and ergency supplies to the surface as needed in order to maintain survivability. All of it planned and calculated within those few seconds Tsuya was connected to the military AI. It was months later before the platforms actually arrived and everything was started.”
We all stared wide-eyed. She caused the surface. From the very start.
She'd brought out old humanity's marvels and used it to break the world herself.
Relinquished wasn't the calamity on the world. Tsuya was.
“Do not think too ill of her.” Urs said in the hush that filled the room. “Once the project was complete, she input a very specific set of pre-calculated programming that is currently loaded within all three platforms that will undo the damage. They only need soone to turn them on, the rest would be automatic and self-correcting. They have the power to restore the world. A single one would be enough, all three working together would drastically speed up the process. And more importantly, they each contain a vault of every DNA sequence from the golden age. All animals and vegetation needed to recreate a self-stabilizing ecosystem. Including an unmodified geno of humanity."
“And from the sky and stars, forces of darkness are put to the blade. The gods shall turn their attention back to the world. And from their three hands, the world shall be remade.” Father said, quoting the scripture directly.
“Yes.” Urs said. “I see she has modified the scripture since last I heard the surface mythos. It only ntioned one god in the past. But the plan remains in place and prepared far before the empire happened. This was in the dark ages, after the fall of the golden age.” The blue eyes turned to Father next. “Those stations have little ans of protection. They will be overwheld soon enough. Machines will create surface-to-orbit weapons everywhere on the surface, and overwhelm any resistance by sheer numbers.”
A full on war wasn’t going to work. We couldn’t stop Relinquished from taking the surface. Not forever.
“We need to assassinate her directly.” Father said cutting right to the heart. “What were your options on doing so? How was Tsuya planning on eliminating Relinquished within your cycle?”
“The sa satellites.” Urs said. "They remain functional as weapons, even if that was not their original purpose."
“Oh scrap, you planned to laser her with one.” I said. “Would that even work?”
“Not with the defaults.” Urs said. “We modified one for the task. A spaceport replica was constructed and lifted to the surface by mites, built to launch work crews up with the supplies needed. Talen led that expedition himself. The work crew all understood it would be a one-way trip. All save for Talen, who would die and return to life on earth. There were only enough resources to modify a single platform. The mission was successful, the crew docked with the primary station and life support lasted long enough to implent the improvents under Talen’s care.”
“We could reuse that.” I said, looking over to Father. “Relinquished already knows about the surface, maybe we can draw her out personally, and laser her from orbit like the last cycle planned."
“Regrettably, it cannot function in that manner anymore. There is no ans to operate it.”
“What?" I asked, turning back to Urs. "Why won’t it work anymore? Nothing’s changed since the empire’s end. Relinquished hasn’t been on the surface even once. Did the improvents break down?”
“The station requires a pilot.”
“Why?” Father asked. “They have orbited the world for centuries, and destroyed countless clans in the process already. They seem capable of the task.”
Urs’s eyes turned to him. “The improvents were occult in nature. Plates were embedded within the satellite, all linked together. Enough to to magnify the beam several thousand fold. They would need to be triggered and commanded by a skilled occultist. Without that elent, the beam’s full unmodified output would only be able to slice through the first three layers of the world at full power.”
“That wouldn’t be powerful enough to cut Relinquished?”
“No. She is able to pull on an entire planet’s worth of power to protect herself.”
“But you expected success with Talen despite that.” Father said. “Why?”
“The power magnification would be proportional to the willpower brought forth by the Occultist.” Urs said. “Tsuya calculated that if Talen operated the beam, it would have been powerful enough to cut through one third of the world downwards, far past the mantle. It is exponential in ability. Her defenses will be powerful, however they will be more generalized for any situation. She will be deeply unprepared for this. With Talen missing, that plan cannot be executed.”
Which would an finding Talen in under a few hours, healing him back to sanity sohow, and getting him back into space. All while dealing with Relinquished. Next to impossible.
“But it just needs soone with strong willpower?” I asked. “If we can get soone up there, into orbit, we might still have a chance. I’m sure we can manage just that part.”
“It will not be so simple.” Urs said. “All consideration was put into power, with no consideration to see the operator survive the event. Whoever acts as the conduit will have too much power flow through them, burning away their body, if not their soul.”
“Talen couldn’t die.” I said, putting the dots together.
“And he also had imnsely higher physical resistances compared to humans at the height of his power. His body was closer in structure to mine.” Urs said. “Life support will not be active when you step onto the station. A normal unmodified human body would require specialized suits and equipnt to make it to the command center alive. And even after, they will be unable to physically resist the stress operating the station will require. Even a genetically modified one would still burn away within seconds. The burden of commanding the station’s primary weapon cannot be shared or displaced among many. It was designed for one person.” He looked down. “I have the skills with the occult, my body can withstand the lack of air and occult pressure, but I do not have the raw willpower that Talen wielded. I am sorry. I cannot magnify the beam enough to cut Relinquished down.”
There was a hush in the room. A simple realization.
Soone who was skilled with the Occult.
Who had unmatched willpower.
And a body stronger than any human that didn't need to breath air. Stronger than even a Deathless:
A Feather’s body.
Slowly, every head in the room turned to one person.
“When sacrifice calls, I shall answer it.” Father said. “If this is to be my destiny, I accept it.”
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