Chapter 10-11 Pivot

Chapter 10-11 Pivot

So. Did you get them?

Iuh Dont know, Reva.

...You dont know.

Well, it sure as shit wasnt a golem. No wreck, and it drew my symphonies all the way down into the gutters. Instead of a cooked Galeslither rupturing, theres a big Sangeist-looking clump of blood down there and a whole lot of collateral. It was channeling some kind of glassy-looking material too. No idea what it is.

Huh. Ill see if I can find an injury down there. Take a peek at the scene. Might be a carry-on for the Galeslither.

Might be. Might be.

Yep. Think theres another Clad in play?

I think we might not be fully aware of what Greatlings still got in his sheath. I say we get Root and Ullens together and seize the moment. Hey, your uncle had that uh those tech-relics, right? Ones from that Omnitech dealer? The little uh radios? Might let us stay synced while the Nether unfucks itself.

Oh. Yeah. Those. Pain in the ass to work, really. They dont listen to your thoughts.

What? Then how the fuck do you get them to do things.

[Sighs] Well, there's this dial, or something

-Conversation between Reva Javvers and Tigertail, Bloodthanes of Stormtree

10-11

Pivot

In Avos defense, he hadnt known Zein at the time. The words he spat were a deliberate attempt to direct the Low Masters toward another unknown variable that had been troubling him. That was still troubling him.

Aside from Zein herself, Ninth Column remained shrouded in shadow and mystery. Thus, their inscrutability appealed to him as a distraction to invokeone hidden leviathan to draw away another.

He simply hadnt expected his former masters to be so brazen.

It, Zein began, gesticulating in the air, her fingers reaching for something lost to touch but present in her memory, was going to be a masterwork. I had infiltrated all the necessary systems, killed all the unnecessary people, pierced all manner of defenses, and stood poised to deliver the final drip to my cocktail of chaos then

She blinked behind each of the thrones, her fists and feet exploding into violence as nano-armored skin clanged against the ancient chairs. Within a fraction of a second, she snapped back across time to stand before Avo, her transition as if a rubberband releasing all its built-up energy.

The embarrassing excuse of a tumor attacked me. It attacked me, little dagger. It attacked me before I could deliver the blow. Her breath took on a demented quality, words a near snarl on her tongue. Do you know what it is like? To feel the moment closeso close! And then a giant knot of autophagic idiocy comes tearing through my well-laid plans?

Avo did in fact know how she felt. But much like a flechette long loosed from its rails, Zein wasnt going to stop for something as small as empathy.

The Fisher snapped free from her being, rising into reality on its hook. Again, the forking paths of the future twisted out from her, but this time, lines trained below her as well, like spreading veins descending below the air in reflection to the branches above.

Her finger twitched and countless moments of pasts could have been coalesced, rushing through all who were gathered. Knowledge of Zeins operations suddenly just was. Through her eyes, Avo recalled a massacre of increments, skimming across the surface of time and conducting murder after murder.

Within a day she had danced across three Highflame majority-owned districts in the Undercroft; lowest of the Tiers. Asginstrad, Telamander, and Akkata of the Seranando Sovereignty exploded into infighting and violence. Through a vicarious glimpse from Zeins perspective, her slaughter was brutal, but methodicalconducted with focus and intent.

Unlike how Avo laced the Nether lobby down in the gutters, Zein preferred her atrocities to be of flesh-on-flesh, blood-on-blood. By disinterest or deficiency in capability, she used her Metamind only as a shield and never as a blade, choosing instead to turn the districts against each other in the oldest fashion she could recall.

She sighed. Do not insult your fathers people. Most systems were already turned by them. It was only the corruption that was dormant. It was only after they started using Highflame golems to burn me from the world that the local mind-priestsagh, Necrosnoticed them.

Highflame knows? Avo asked. Knows about the Low Masters surviving? The Hungers?

They know that someone crippled three districts, took control of twelve-thousand golems, burning and nulling everything in their path for reasons unknown. She put her hands up in a shrug. It will take time for them to put the pieces togetherif they ever do. All the Necros who noticed died, you see. Sudden nullings. Zein put her lips together. In the end, it seems that I was not the one to beat your efforts. A pity.

No words for the countless lives that mustve died in the crossfire. No consideration of the damages caused. Zein, like all the other Godclads, was driven by personal interest alone. It occurred to Avo that he was likely only alive due to the inclinations of her personal character, and that he didnt know how the rest of Ninth Column felt about this mess.

And now I fear this might bring the Chivalrics and Meritocrats closer together. Zein sighed. The longer the former remains, the weaker Highflame becomes. We cannot have them lose the war yet, Avowe cannot. The other two cannot hold the stalemate without them.

You need something from the Guilds remaining stable, Avo said. Why you're keeping the stalemate.

That much is obvious

Is it for the tower?

An anticipatory expression came over her face. She didnt finish the sentence. A strange sensation twisted inside Avo. The feeling that she was provoking him in some unseen way, coaxing him down a path of development favorable to her.

A growing disquiet filled him. The weight of paranoia descended in full. How could he be the master of his own future when Zein likely saw this conversation coming, and shifted the tracks of their dialogue at her own leisure?

What worth was there in having individual will if the opposition was guiding you on an unseen leash made by strands of fate parted across mutations of time?

Yet, before apprehension managed to ascend into dread, Avo found himself looking at Kae. Zein seemed to have a hard time predicting the actions of the Agnos. And her plot was undone by the Low Masters, they way she spoke of them like they were unseen factors.

There was a limit to her Heaven. There must be a limit to her Heaven. If not, why was she here, fighting in the shadows, playing the role of a spider instead of a warrior.

He needed to find the borders of Zeins reach. Build things beyond it. He would not be a victim of her machinations. He had grown too much, and come too far to let his choices be compromised.

Yes, the Woundshaper whispered. You see the face of the enemy now. Finally.

Zein?

Everything that we are not is an enemy. Every vector that we do not control can turn against us. The tapestry is all, but all except our corner offers refuge to adversaries, past and to be. Which is why you must root me deeper

Avo muted his Woundshaper. Ironically, it was the Heavens own words that made him silence it.

It, too, was trying to compromise him, its recent words driving him toward granting it more power, expanding its might and letting it experience the swell of godhood even if it was to be vicarious.

He needed a way to think. To consider everything uninfluenced by all the feedback around him. Again, he felt the draw of Reqs memory, and though the Nether blocked his mem-lock, Avo ran it through his Metamind.

A vicarious experience. Something rarely felt, a moment he would never experience on his own.

The need suddenly revealed itself to Avo. He needed to gaze inward at himself. He needed to bask in his own totality. When he was compromised within and without, he needed another angle to view himself. New angles away that might be untainted by Zein, by other beings warped by self-interest.

Avo had his Echoheads chitter. The shapes of different bodies splashed into his senses as a static field formed in his mind. Around the table were Draus, Zein, and Kae. Apart from them in the corner of the roombut still listeningwas Chambers.

Only Essus stood away in the dark, uninterested in talk of schemes and chaos, choosing to stare out into the dark instead.

There was something there in the father. Kae. And maybe Chambers. Something he could use to better view himself. To avoid

Subversion.

You have taken the qualities of a locus in your blood, yes? Zein asked, wrenching his focus back. This is good. Very good. This amplification of your capabilities will serve you quite well for what is to come.

And what is to come? Draus asked pointedly. She shared a look with Avo. They had their plans for the future. New angles to pivot. Zein being here changed that dynamic.

Oh, do not start growling at me like Ive come to take your precious retribution away, Zein said, shaking her head at them. Rejoice: We will still be working toward the death of Jhred Greatling. It's just that I need a little more out of him now. More than even before.

And hows that? Avo asked.

And the playfulness bled out from Zeins face. Words are treacherous things, little dagger. It always scared me how the simple things we say can destroy so many futures. She paused. This moment of atrocity. It will be a communal thing for Highflame. A unifying wound between both factions for how they all seem to have suffered. This cannot be allowed. The Chivalrics must be broken. House Greatling must shatter. And Ambassador Valhu, tragically, now must die.