Chapter 11-2 Epilogue: A Break Between Storms

Chapter 11-2 Epilogue: A Break Between Storms

What do you mean his Frame is missing? Thats impossible. Were the only ones who can secure and remove it. None of his canons are running eitherno Rendthis place is stable. No Rupture.

Euthanize three more. Well see whats wrong once his Heaven manifests.

-Agnosi Thanatech Regarding Jhred Greatlings Liminal Frame

11-2

Epilogue: A Break Between Storms

A beat passed. They all studied the silver as a general mood merged into a gestalt between their minds. Unwilling to bear the discomfort in silence, Chambers offered words to a common desire they all shared.

+Shit? The Column? The one the crazy old head-exploded gerents a part of? Consangs, what say we just get the fuck outta here. I mean Paladin-guys gone. Sky looks clear. Why dont we just you know? Do a runner.+

Avo would be of the same opinion, other than the fact that he had suffered enough surprises for a day. The past moments had solidified a singular belief in him - what he didnt know sought to unmake him, and what he did know could be prevented.

Ignorance was death as a Godclad. So was waiting for another to decide their initiative upon you.

Within this, he set about jacking into her mind.

He expanded the darkness into a demiplane using his Abyssal Cove canon. From there, he shifted back over to the Woundshaper, his Sanguinity flooding out from the darkness like a soft emanation of red mist.

Flecks from the expansion of his Heaven traced her attire and skin, and Denton betrayed her annoyance with but a slight frown.

+Avo,+ Draus asked. +What are you doing?+ Through their connected minds, she felt him shunt his Whisper behind Denton.

Tuning the position of his perception with the Glaives, he began to synchronize surface thoughts. His Ghostjack surged as sequences were pulled to its thundering call. Simulated objects and emotions blended to create the spoofed construct.

Yet, just as he was about to slip his ghosts against the borders cast by her wards, her thoughtstuff came into shape.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

Avo froze.

The outer architecture of her mind was a pond of dancing numbers and symbols. Between weaving instances of binary integers, he caught flickers and flashes of comprehensible memories, but the fullness only came in fleeting moments. Moreover, there was nothing denoting the presence of a Metamind mantled upon her consciousness, with neither wards nor palace established in place.

In a sense, she was closer to a conscious machine and bare of all phantasmal defenses atop it.

+What the hells is up with her mind?+ Draus muttered. +Looks more like one of them Voidwatch uploads than a person.+

Denton tilted her head at the shadows, her pale-metallic lips parting as she thought her next words. Just as she spoke, a distant column of fire bellowed into existence over her, rising like a tumbling tower into the darkness of midnight as the blasts built themselves upward floor by floor.

Like a fiery scar upon the flesh of existence, the rising inferno opened like a chasm over a distant district far beyond the reach of their eyes. A single spec of light slipped out from the burning wound. Denton turned, the infrastructure of her mind shifting like mechanisms or gears were sliding and slotting into place.

Again, there was thought there, but she was far enough divorced from humanity that he struggled to find a point of entry. Tentatively, he tried attaching the perception spoof only to slide off her exterior. Instead, what caught his attention next was the thinness of a needle tunneling upward into the void, its path narrowing toward a specific vector, as it was casting a traveling signal or drawing something from a faraway source.

Perfect, Denton muttered. Listen. Im going to keep this short: I understand if you dont trust me. Or the Column. Of if you just want to run. I dont fault any of you if thats your choice. Thousandhand has that effect. But right now, we need to leave, and you all need to go Zero-Burn as soon as possible. I managed to bribe off the Paladin, but Uthred Greatling isnt an equation I know how to solve.

A low groan sounded from Essus. +Another one? Is there no end to their cursed line?+

+Uthreds the father,+ Draus said. +Hes probably to blame for this line. Him and that sow.+ She sighed.

Denton continued. Im not going to force you to do anything. I cant. But I can offer you the shadows of my aero so you can get out of the district quicker. Or a seat if youre willing to have a conversation with the Column proper. I know our boss didnt leave the best impression. But were still your best shot at staying alive.

She offered the darkness a weak shrug. You got hours to days till the Agnosi give up on trying to find Jhred Greatlings Frame. That, and all the missing thaums will draw very specific eyes to you. You wont be able to move anywhere without being hunted.

A distant crack sounded through the air. The wavelengths of light twitched like fabric in their near vicinity. Brightness pulsed as if connected to distant waves. Her eyes snapped to the side as if glancing at something from her periphery. With a pre-emptive wince, she pulled off one of her ivory-inlaid cloves and revealed claws of gleaming titanium.

Carefully, she brought them up to her right eye.

+What is she+ Chambers began to ask.

With surgical precision, she snatched the organ free from her socket. With the swipe of a digit, she severed it clean and loose.

A lull of thougth went through the ghost-links. The silence was quickly interrupted by a single declaration.

LUSTAWAY ACTIVATED

+Jaus fuckin corps, Chambers,+ Draus muttered.

+What? Those are some shiny eyes.+

+Juicy,+ Avo said, adding an additional descriptor. Like a delectable orb hanging from a stalk of pristine tissue, he felt himself salivating like a nu-dog even with his physical self stored in whatever subreality his Frame used to store his mortal form.

Flesh for time, Denton said. Five minutes. Thats all I want. Give me five minutes so you at least know whats going on before you decide what comes next.

+You know,+ Draus said, her attention drifting over to the silvery aero, +theres quite a few reflections I can bind usin that. Could just link a window as a fast exit. And since therere doors, Essus might-could make us another way out if we need it.+

Denton frowned. She was likely thinking about how everyone else reverted to a prime state while Chambers continued to be deprived.

The answers simple, Silver, Draus said, shrugging her head at Chambers. Hes a half-strand. A real sick bastard.

Chambers nodded, thinking that he was being praised. Im am the half-strand.

The Glaive blinked. Right. She flicked her wrist. Avo narrowed in on the gesture as specific commands filtered through the locus. She had coded visual-haptic orders into the aero. Useful. He scanned through the mem-data for anything worth noting.

As they rose and took off, the internal gravity controls spared the need for any gimbals as they were submerged in a blanket of balance force. The walls around them depolarized from the inside as they rose up beside the silicon-shelled megablock towering over them. Cresting its height, countless other blocks of similar build broke into an asymmetric pattern a few miles into the district while coilgun-flung railways passed across the top of every edifice, the environment looking close to something like a circuit board.

Here, Draus said, flinging the eye at Avo without looking. He opened his jaw as it hit the roof of his mouth, and with a sudden close, he felt his orb pop upon his tongue, staining him with the flavor of sweetness while his fangs inched through the gristle of connected tissue.

Denon had grown another eye by this point. It was as if she never blinded herself at all.

Settling across from them, the ground turned transparent as well, and the aero picked up speed. Avo checked their destination for any subterfuge and found only one pre-sequenced location built into its system.

The Easy Armistice. From the mem-data, it looked like a club or some manner of joy parlor. From experience, he guessed it to be some kind of thinkeasy for smuggling phantasmics and memories or a potential front for The Deep Bazaar.

It was also the place Walton had asked him to seek just after claiming his Sangiest.

He had long delayed this moment. Firstly for the sake of killing Mirrorhead, and secondly for all the distrust boreand continued to bearfor the Column.

Fittingly, that was when Denton started speaking. Things werent supposed to turn out this way. But I think you all know how best-laid runs go.

Yeah, Draus said, nodding sardonically, they get derailed by a time-jumpin fuckin lunatic whose head explodes for no reason and ends with us stuck right under the nose of the Guilds. Just a usual job goin right, am I right?

A ghost of a smirk passed over the Glaives face. Im probably not the best person to say that too, but I get your point.

Right. She worked with Zein. Avo suddenly felt an immense spike of pity for the poor woman.

Regardless, things didnt go quite as planned. Snapping her fingers, a holographic shape pulsed at the center of the aero and it showed the burning tower they saw earlier. She pointed at Draus. You were supposed to end up inside the Fires Height via one of the stormtrees portals. You with the incriminating memories. Abrel Greatlings body and the Bloodthanes following you. Her gaze turned over to Avo. And the other three were supposed to pull a false-flag attack by switching between Heavens. She had a kill-list of specific Guilders and personnel you were supposed to hit. If she had you take a mini-nuke or something, it was to destabilize part of the towers ontology.

Well, Draus said, that sure as shit didnt happen. She still dead?

No. But she will be subtler for a time. The paths are Denton paused and considered her next words carefully. Arent something I understand, but she cant use them for now.

A loud deafening roar of frustration rattled the air and shook the aero. Denton blinked twice and gave a slight laugh. Uthred Greatling just arrived late. Lucky us.

Yeah, Avo said. Lucky. Talk. Times running.

Alright, Denton said. Lets start with the fact that I could have just let Naeko take you. He was within his rights, and I burned valuable intel keeping you away from the Unwhere.

Chambers squinted his eyes and nodded. Unwhere. Right. What-what is that?

Mostly a Domain of Death turned to the use of keeping Godclads contained in perpetuity. She looked up. Out and up in the void. A lonely and empty place.

The Regular scoffed. Yeah, but before that, they need to charge and sentence you proper, so I doubt you did that much. Why now? Why are you making contact with us now? Zeins too dead and you're the piss-holder? Is that it?

Denton frowned. Never been called that before. The truth is we werent sure about it. Him. Sorry.

Avo glared.

You have to understand, the Frame was never meant for youyour father helped us steal it, but we all had a candidate in mind already. Plans. Ran into complications instead. Had to burn a few cells. And then, about a month later, Zein ended up finding you while tracking the Hungers. Before that she wanted to test you more from afar, so to speak.

So to speak, Avo said. It made sense about the Frame. But more importantly, it offered a truth.

Zein wasnt omniscient. She hadnt known until his encounter with the Hungers. She hadnt known where he was before that. Pairing that with her sudden death, a newfound vigor swelled inside him. She could be killed. The future could be severed before it revealed overmuch.

He just needed to map out more of her blindspots.

Im going to keep being honest with you: we need your Frame. We need it for the Ladder. We need them to absorb the Arks. We need it to stop the end from happening. She leaned in closer, almost unconsciously. And we need to drain the Rash before it ruptures even more.

The words were cast from her lips like a hammer. And suddenly, she had the fullness of his attention. A flash of Walton withering away as stillborn clumps of flesh were cut free from his sores. He said something to Avo then. Or someone.

Avo wasnt sure anymore. The memories that made up who he was didnt come from him.

But his father, Walton remained.

As the rain fell harder and a tide of neon and music filled the horizon, Avo broke the silence. How long do we have?

Six months, Denton said. Maybe less. The Agnosi who Theyre dead now. No one knows the canons needed. Your Frame is our last chance before the anomalies expand. And then She shrugged. Then I guess well find out if theres anything left of us to save.

The aeros locus pinged. They stuttered momentarily as they began their descent.

APPROACHING THE EASY ARMISTICE: 10.3 KILOMETERS