“It’s going to be a bad winter,” Elaria cheerfully said, as they all sat down in the greeting room where hot chocolate and cookies awaited them. “Maybe even a 3-band winter!”
She didn’t seem too broken up about that near-disastrous forecast.
Mark asked, “3-bands ans three auroras in the sky instead of the 5 that are up there right now?”
“Correct! Expect lows in the -20s, or more.” Elaria moved on, “So did either of you have any strange dreams that felt more real than usual, lately?”
Mark shook his head. “Not that I can rember.”
Isoko said, “No, ma’am.”
Elaria’s good cheer took a hit. “Ah… I expected sothingafter the goblin hunt. So sort of breakthrough. You two did quite a good showing there…” And then she put away her concern and smiled, saying, “When it happens it happens. Maybe you both had a dream and you didn’t rember it. If you get repeated dreams, then that is likely a mapping dream. It might not happen every night, and mapping dreams tend to border normal dreams, so there’s a lot of drifting back and forth. With ti and practice, you’ll be able to shift into your map with so light ditation. Not today, though!” She stood up. “Today we do more astral stretching, and I’ll show you the beginner forms. You’ll recognize so of the forms more as stances and various other warrior things, I am sure…”
The three of them passed the ‘butler’, Sekail, on the way to the workout zone below the house. The butler was obviously not the butler, being as he was entirely too ferocious looking and defensive of Elaria, but he acted and dressed like a butler, so that’s what he was… probably.
His presence reminded Mark that House Sacredcut had knights, and how Valen Manor had no guards, or ‘knights’, at all. Maybe they just didn’t need them?
As they descended the stairs to the open areas below the house, Mark asked, “Why do the Sacredcuts have knights, but you don’t? A lot of the noble houses have knights, actually. But Sekail is the only one you have here?”
“Mark,” Isoko whispered, as she tried not to cringe too much—
But Elaria just chuckled as she stepped into the large open room, where weapons held on the walls like ensconced lights and the floor was bare stone. “We’re under sanction by the Empire for being dragonists, and have been for a long ti. We may raise no armies and have no real power, but our bloodlines are tied to a lot of great workings in the Empire so they can’t get rid of us that easily. They need us alive for a lot of things. Now co! Raise your fists and let us stretch…”
Mark got the distinct impression that he had stepped into a big issue, but Elaria didn’t want to talk about it. She had only answered Mark because… because of reasons. Probably a lot of reasons.
Astral body stretching was pretty simple, and Mark had been doing it outside of Elaria’s directed instruction for the last several days. Push all the way up, then down, left then right, forward then backward. And then do it again and again. Mark had a range of about 500 to 600 ters when he went really far with it, and that hadn’t changed.
It was still a physical workout, though.
Elaria had Mark and Isoko hopping and punching, then kicking the air, and then doing stretches on the ground and against walls. Eventually, the normal stretches finished, and Elaria stood firm, her deanor changing to sothing more solid. Mark was loose, but now he ca to attention. Isoko did the sa beside him.
Elaria spoke, “We will now go back into the silent room, and you will try to withstand the silence and feel your Binding in the dark, and in the quiet.”
Mark was soon sitting cross-legged on a pillow in the dark, in a room where the walls were made of grey foam pyramids. There was no sound at all except for the sounds of his own body. His gurgling guts. His pulsing heart. His breathing and soon enough, he thought he could even hear his hair grow. It was not a good sound.
Rushing in the ears, pulsing in the body, twitches in the legs and arms that set everything into motion and made Mark feel like he was in the belly of sothing much larger than himself—
“Out out out!” Mark got up, slamd the door open, and lurched into the hallway, breathing hard.
Elaria was in the hallway, chatting with Isoko. They stopped talking and Elaria grinned as she saw Mark. “Too much?”
“Yes.”
“You’re next, Isoko,” Elaria said.
Isoko steeled herself and went into the room.
The door clicked—
Elaria asked, “So Isoko tells that you’re looking for livium for an AI assistant?”
Mark blinked a few tis, trying to acclimate from the deep, silent dark, to a cheery conversation with a duchess who acted more like an aunt. He acclimated fast. Mark said, “Not a True AI, but one with a casing that is as solid as my own PL’s, so that I can maintain communication with the settlent or anywhere else I happen to be. I can’t TT like Isoko or other brawnies, and I might never be able to do that, so other solutions are needed.”
Eliara nodded along, saying, “And the solution of a livium core for an AI is a good one. Very good, very old solution, and to the very sa problem you’re having; of needing a dedicated communicator that doesn’t die out there when exposed to dangerous monsters.”
Mark was confused. “Oldsolution?”
“Thousands of years old!”
… Well thatcouldn’t be right.
“Do you know the history of the AIs? Where they co from?”
Mark rapidly organized so thoughts, and said, “The AIs were what happened when old computing tech of the 1960’s on Earth t magic from Daihoon, and I think… The archmages of Daihoon did sothing to make the AIs better… Which I now assu is related to what you’re talking about. Livium ca from Daihoon, then? With that, then the AIs beca real people with vast powers. The City AIs. They were the oversight needed in the Reveal to find and categorize all the threats in various areas as the Veil ripped and tore and let everything through, going both ways. The City AIs gradually beca the center defenses of many different powers.”
Elaria waited.
“Uh…” Mark continued, “The most famous City AI was Malaqua, of New Delhi, before the city was destroyed in the years of the Reveal by so cataclysm. Malaqua survived and he went on with Addashield and others through Endless Daihoon to reach Luna, the Moon, where Arakino, the City of Demons, lay. Once there they did a lot of things and Malaqua Ascended to beco the Stone God, Warden of Demons, and thus ended the Reveal.”
Elaria nodded. “Close enough. I would say they helped usher in the closeof the Reveal. Not ‘ended’ it. It was so ti between Malaqua’s Ascension to godhood and the rise of the Pantheon and the settling of the System into what it is today. But you got the major points, except for one, which… Well. Quite honestly I thought they still taught, but maybe they don’t? The story usually ntions sothing about how earthlings were scared of artificial intelligence, but the people of Daihoon only thought—”
“Oh! Familiars! Right.”
Elaria grinned. “Correct! Addashield was one of those archmages, actually, that didn’t think that AIs were anything to be fearful of. He nad them familiars, and that is what they beca.”
“Yeah. I forgot, uh… I think I heard sothing about… That. And then, afterward, so Summoners and the AI consortium had so deals about… about a lot of stuff. So that Summoners don’tgo around making AIs for just anyone. Sothing like that.”
Elaria nodded a little as Mark spoke, then she said, “The existence of familiars stretches back thousands of years, but the recent advance in AI has allowed familiars to beco sothing real. Sothing that isn’tjust a reflection of the person using livium as a familiar core.
“To cut short a great deal of magical history…
“So people can solidify soulstuff into crystal form. Not mana, which is like you with your adamantium mana, but actual soulstuff. Blank soulstuff. Anyone with sufficient training can make a soul crystal and then trap a soul inside, but livium is base soulstuff in crystal form. A blank slate, if you will. Usually the only people who can do this are Seers, but with great training a normal person can do it too. Do you know the difference between what we’d call a ‘Near’ and a ‘Far’?”
“Yes,” Mark said. “Nears are pretty much everyone, with astral bodies that are connected to themselves. Fars are people who can move their astral body around outside of their own sphere of influence. They can split off parts of themselves and move them around far, far from their body.”
“Correct,” Elaria said. “The livium cores made by Seers, Fars, or Summoners, can then be filled with the astral body of the user, to thus craft a familiar. Do you knowwhat a familiar is? The stuff you might have seen in movies are not true familiars, though the idea of cats and mice and ravens being familiars is all very true. It’s a nuanced topic. Have you ever seena real familiar?”
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Mark shook his head. “Probably not.”
Elaria grinned and chuckled. She nodded. “Probably not.” She added, “The historical ‘Familiar’ is a homunculus. A created thing, made of mud and bones and sinew and various bloods and bile and other fluids of the summoner, or Summoner. Familiars are complicated things, and can be created in any sort of shape. The shape of the familiar’s life will eventually beco real, though. A cat familiar will beco more and more of a cat. A human-shaped familiar, even if they are only half a ter tall to start with, will eventually beco a real person. The cat will beco a housecat or a tiger. The homunculus will grow to the size of a normal person. Eventually, sowhere along the way, the familiar, the true life, will split from the creator into a new life. Or they die. In the old tis, familiars were used for a variety of nial or important tasks, from cleaning dishes to helping to cast spells, and the new familiars, the ones made of AIs and circuit boards, are much the sa in that regard.”
Helping to cast spells? Mark was all ears.
“The newfamiliar is a thing of electronics and programd life, with limits that are easily imposed and shapes that can be anything. They will not develop more and more in those initial directions unless those limiters are removed. Much safer. No need to worry about your cat familiar turning into a real thing in the middle of the night and then deciding it needs to eat you because you made it fight for its life and eat everything else all the ti. That happened more often than you might think.
“In the before tis, familiars would almost always beco real and cause problems due to mistreatnt by their masters… Big Problems. So of the most prominent monster lines can be traced back to a homunculus progenitor, and usually to a magefall. Dartdrakes, for one. Umbercats, for another. Nowadays, most familiars remain electronic lives, never achieving true sapience.” Elaria finished with, “Which is what you want, yes? The non sapient version?”
“I do not want to have a person attached to my phone; yes. Just a secure way of communicating with others while I’m out in the field,” Mark said... But he was also interested in magic. “In the stories…” Mark began, though he wasn’t sure where he was going for a mont. And then he continued, “In the stories, familiars help with magic. And you just said… Can familiars actuallyhelp with magic?”
Elaria smiled a little. “That’s the main use of familiars— Of course they have many uses. But the historical use was to help a mage cast a spell. Familiars, when they are properly used, can bring the mage directly into their binding, and can help the mage put together spells in so ways.” She took a breath. She said, “And that, right there, is the crux of why I am bringing all of this up. Demons do not have allthe power when it cos to helping a mage make magic. Familiars are the non-demonic option for helping oneself to make magic. They’re also really good at talking to demons and ensuring that nothing happens to the practitioner.”
… There was a lot there.
Mark found himself worried about that last sentence, though. “Uh… Why include that last part—”
“Rember when we spoke of forbidden soul warping magics, and you asked about Thrashtalon and Wilding and the Skillers of the Empire. I said that you, with your Union, could one day easily warp the souls of people, and that you should be sure never to do that.” Elaria said, “One must be inford of the bad things when they approach the bad things, so that they do not approach the bad things, and that is what is happening here.
“I tell you that familiars are excellent shields to have when communicating with demons because every proper demonist cultist has a familiar these days. It has always been that way.” And then Elaria started listing things, “Inquisitors look into people who have familiars. Most people who have familiars hide them because people who know about familiars know how they’re properly used. There are rules and regulations regarding livium and the AIs are the only ones really getting around those rules because of who they are, as a people. An allied people, at that. So of the only allies humans have, actually, so we nations of the world do a lot for them, as they do for us.” Then she finished with, “I’m glad you don’t know anyone with a familiar. If you had said ‘yes’ then I would have needed to do so investigation of my own, aftergiving you all of these proper warnings, because I know everyone who has a familiar in this settlent, and I know all of them are notcultists of Thrashtalon or the demons.”
Mark felt like his eyes were open a little bit more today than they had been yesterday.
Elaria saw Mark’s mont of learning, and then she added on a mont of terror, saying, “Now tell true: Do you plan on using a familiar to talk to demons?”
Mark felt the world almost sharpen. And then he focused. “… Not planning on it, no. But when they make talk to them, then I needa shield against them. If a familiar can do that, then I need that functionality.”
Elaria softened a little. She softly said, “Good. That’s an answer that falls well within the acceptable answers to my question. Sorry for putting you on the spot like that, but the people who hand out livium cores for familiars will do a lot worse.”
… It sounded like she wanted Mark to have a familiar?
But also… She was talking like it was a bad thing to have one?
It felt like mixed ssages.
Mark asked, “So I shouldhave one? Or… I still want one, but I shouldn’twant one?”
“Well of courseyou should have a familiar! Just because they’re dangerous does not an they are not useful; They’re very useful! The limited ones are pretty limited, though. Even a basic, real AI will help you to map your binding. You’ll run into the magical limits of a limited AI rather quickly, though. Just a forewarning: Don’t remove the limiter. Then you’re responsible for a person.”
Mark caught sothing like… longing in Elaria’s vector. “Do you have a familiar?”
Elaria smiled, though her vector was one of long ago loss. “I used to. He was murdered by the Empire in the cleanup after the Reveal, when the Imperial Family took all the power for themselves.”
Mark had stepped into a soft landmine—
Isoko slamd open the silent room and rushed out, saying, “I can’t do it anymore! I…” She looked at Mark and Elaria and saw sothing had happened. “What—” She decided not to ask questions.
But then Elaria happily said, “I was telling Mark about familiars as demon-interdiaries, and how the livium core AI Mark wants is basically a familiar but by another na.” As Isoko’s eyes widened, Elaria turned to Mark. “House Valen can’t get a familiar. We’re forbidden from using them. If I were you, I would go and ask Marigold tallic about that sort of thing. As a side note: Your banker has been wanting to talk to you about selling your adamantium and I thinkthe Empire wants to buy. Could be a different source, but that is doubtful. There’s a lot of interesting things happening in the adamantium market these days!” She waved a hand. “But that’s for later! I have you for at least another 30 minutes and so we’re going to start the forms. You’re probably close enough to seeing your binding that you can use the forms, and if not, then you’ll need the forms anyway. The first ones are just more stretching, and…”
What followed was an exercise in what Mark thought of as Chinese Dancing, but from Daihoon. He was sure it had a proper na, but all Elaria called it was formwork. Mark made an O-shape with his hands and he moved slowly left and right, and then he separated his hands and lifted his left foot as he balanced on his right and stretched out toward the right with both hands. He was supposed to stretch his astral body out in every direction of his limbs as he moved, too, which wasn’t that difficult, but Elaria kept telling him that if it was easy then he wasn’t stretching far enough. If he moved too fast then that was another wrong action. If he moved too slow then that was another mistake.
Isoko was doing great, though.
“Reminds of Tai Chi,” Isoko said, balancing on the toes of her left foot as she leaned forward all the way and spread her arms wide, as she arched her right leg backward, in the air. “Mom and Dad were big into that growing up, and now I think I know why.”
Mark faltered a little as he tried to hold the sa pose, and he was not nearly horizontal with his chest enough, but he managed to hold mostof the pose. For about 3 seconds.
Elaria said, “Hold it there for another 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7… good very good— Straighten that back leg.”
Mark straightened his back leg.
He was sweating and tired and when the session ended he collapsed onto his ass on the ground, happy it was over, for now.
Soon, both Mark and Isoko were at the front door and bowing to Elaria as they left, saying thanks.
“If you don’t have repeating dreams by next week then maybe we need to find so truly terrifying monsters to send you against. I was sosure the goblins would help you get to the next level, but… Hmm. Next week.” Elaria added, “And be sure to talk to Marigold, and ask her about familiars!”
Mark smiled a little. “I will, thank you.”
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