Chapter 13-1 What Was Lost (I)

Chapter 13-1 What Was Lost (I)

+You work way too much, you know that?+

+Hm? Sorry, I was trying to match background details between the Painter of the Pale Morning to the Claimant of Dawn. You know whats so interesting about them? Theyre two different gods separated by two different culturesthousands of kilometers apart! But their myths are so so so similar. Its clear one group of nomads took inspiration from an existing entity in the Kosgan highlands and ventured into the heart of Burnside before activating another Soul using an interpretation of the mythos! Im surprised there was no recorded instance of the faithful between these two+

[Dawton laughing]

+What? What? Its its true! Its very fascinating howstop laughing! Stop!+

+Alright. Alright. I didnt Im not mocking you. I just enjoy it when you pout.+

+...Im not pouting.+

+Oh. And Im not peeking at you using the morning light.+

+Thats good, Paladin. Such behavior would be highly inappropriate and extremely invasive to my privacy.+

+Yeah. Glad Im not doing it, then. Say, I think one of my canons isnt manifesting the way it used to. Maybe you can have a look?+

+That sounds impossible and very concerning. Ill need to take a look later. The Imitators I wish you could see it. Its beyond my ability to express.+

+Beyond your powers of speech? Truly, the dream is about to be realized Ah. Theres the pout again.+

+Im serious! Its imagine if something as small as your cells could be part of a super-intelligent chain. Except it doesnt think. It cant think. But it can store memory. And it can hyper-adapt to any environment without fail. The surface of the sun the void the Sunderwilds. Almost anything.+

+Like a living demiplane?+

+Its not disconnected from reality in any way. More like it bleeds over And then whatever is in the environment is mirrored and memorized by it. People. Organisms. Ecosystems. Everything there it, it imitates but also splices in a certain way. Like it mixes people with their location inside the field of false-cognition it generates. So a geographic destination can have a mixture of personalities while the individual people remain separate. The best way I can describe it is its a connected superstructure that is alive but not self-aware but it has a feedback loop with a bunch of self-aware beings its simulating Agh! Its so hard to express, but after putting it in the room with some sacrifices, they ended up having each others memories. A few thought they were each other. But they could still remember themselves. And whats more, they remember seeing people who were placed inside their deployment cells before. Years before. Im talking thousands upon thousands of people in the location. It doesnt seem to have any concept or limit of time or or+

+...How does that work?+

+I dont know! Thats what makes it so so so special. With this we carried it into a rupture several times. Its like reality is hyper-contagious to all its cells. Like it just accepts and adapts into the local structure, chains and all. Some spatial heavens do damage to it though. If you suddenly cut a place in half It it starts getting confused. But the parted cell chain relinks!+

+Jaus. Thats something.+

+Yeah. I think I think we can deploy it into the Rupture for the Rash. We can use it to peek inside and try to fix the damage. The Agnosi that made it might have been murdered and the lore destroyed, but using its properties+

+Holy hells+

+Yes! Yes! I know! Im going to fix the Rash! The city intimacy! Contact! Everything. And we wont need to do things across the Nether anymore!+

+I ahem. Yeah.+

[Kae giggling]

+What?+

+Nothing. I just enjoy it when you blush, Dawton.+

-Intercept of a private conversation between Paladin Dawton Morrow and Agnos Kae Kusanade

13-1

What Was Lost (I)

Avo, Kae said while swiping tears from her face, can you do me a favor and kill yourself?

Three sets of eyes just stared at the Agnos. Chambers in particular glanced between the woman and the ghoul. Well, thats a helluva way to thank someone after they fixed your mind

Want to see my Frame? Avo asked.

I need to see it. Kae swallowed. Rage bubbled over her mind like gathering stratocumulus ascending into the shape of a storm. She held a distracted gaze as she spoke, eyes distant as the past once denied weighed on her like an anvil. I need to see if they were used to make your Frame. When I went in the last time, everything felt like a dreameverything was a haze. But not anymore. I can remember what they did. They used me to kill him and they burned all my friends. I cant Avo, please

Kae. Kae. Take a breath, Draus said as the Agnos began to ramble faster and faster.

Kae spun on the Regular, frustration spilling forth from her like a dam. No! I will not fucking take a breath! Ive taken enough breaths! Ive spent enough time as as an invalid. I want to see the Frame. I want to work. Let me work so I can thinkI want to think.

The Reg looked away. It took much for Draus to give ground, and fittingly, there was something seismic in the Agnos outpouring of grief.

Denying herself the release of tears, she instead channeled into a need for labor and rose from her chair locked eyes with Avo as she held the pain crawling her from chest in place. I need to be useful now. I need to study your Frame. We can go over everything inside after I make certain She inhaled mid-rant. ...if they put the Imitators inside you. I think I know what youre made of, but I have to see and know. I have to!

At her state, the Woundshaper uncharacteristically shuffled with discomfort. Mercy, master. Let the builder indulge her efforts. Let her architect and be away from pain. Do not let her linger in misery so. Such would be so wasteful. Pointlessly wasteful!

Surprise sounded from the Galeslither. You are capable of compassion?I am capable of recognizing proper use, you blind-eyed, simple mule, the Woundshaper snapped back. She seeks to enter our Domain. To install the steps leading up the tapestrys ladder. If it is your want to watch her cringe and whimper under the weight of her own emotional fragility then imagine such nonsense on your time. I simply yearn see that she lives up to proper use.

Things changed. People changed. He changed.

Taking his silence as acceptance, Sunrise elaborated on the details of its offer. We wish to accompany you for a time. Assist you. Work with you.

That made Avo look over his shoulder at the swarm. Why?

Interest, Sunrise said. It sounded entirely honest, but Necrojacks operated in a place just a bit deeper than the surface of things. And because we wish to compose a proper character report on your behalf toward the Aegis, under Voidwatch. They have official and effective liquidation order on your creators. Considering your capabilities, they will be wary of you as well. But with proper evidence and a witness, I can keep you spared from their attention.

The second part interested him more than it did worry. Voidwatch. There was a war between them and Noloth, yes?

Not a true war, Sunrise said. But the Low Masters have inflicted harm and full-cessations on several cores. They remain classified as a major threat. As will you by the broader polities if not registered.

He let out a low growl in consideration.

I dont need an answer immediately. Just keep this in mind. In the meantime, I will offer you what insight and services I can.

It dissolved past him in scattered streams of insects, but from the wake of the swarm was cast a specific sequence of memories. Avo drew it into his Metamind and found it to be pre-arranged for his Auto-Seance.

He would use a separate locus to connect. He didnt trust the bioform. Not yet. But things were getting increasingly interesting.

Emerging out the fourth level of the demiplane, he found an outcropping of rock flanking the stairs leading to a near-mile-long pocket of space once filled with mud, sand, soil, and stone. Now a pond of blood he connected to for his dives, earlier converting the matter that remained after expelling his Rend,, he found Kae standing over the crimson waters staring at her own reflection.

To both sides of her were the jutting heads of Rendsinks still quivering the ground about with spatial-distorting Rend. Avo had uncovered them earlier during his preparations, and here he left them untouched and unearthed.

Casting out his entropy as a barrage, he smote a two-hundred-foot-long gouge out from the soil to his left as his Rend drained away to nothing. He hadnt been operating on much earlier to begin with. Eighteen percent, now nothing.

Turning, Kae regarded him with a harrowed gaze. Good. Here. Lets see. She began patting at her coat. He guessed she was looking for manticorethe agent she used to snuff him the first time she entered his death using her False-Hev.

Dont bother, Avo said. Ill just use my Echoheads. Or fuse a spike through my skull.

She immediately stopped rubbing through her pockets and spat out a shaky breath. Okay. Good. Thanks.

He came to a stop ten feet away from her. The ground beneath their feet was nothing but unevenly sheared sediment caked in smears of grainy mud. She folded her arms and fidgeted while he just stared at her.

She was too tense to offer him words. He didnt know what to sayif anythingthat could make her feel better.

So he didnt. Kae. Might need to hurt you more before I kill myself. Dont want to hide this from you.

She closed her eyes and opened them again. With a muted frown, she reached up and brushed the veil covering her clan mark back. The character of her line looked like a severed spring. Talk. She choked the words out.

He nearly held himself back from speaking. But spoke anyway. She needed to know. She deserved to know.

There was no point in denying someone the architect of their torment.

My father revealed what you were doing to Ori-Thaum. She lifted her head and her mouth slackened in a soft expression of alarm. Is also the one who sent Draus to save you. Dont know why he did it. Have a guess. Think it was all for me. As a distraction. Something like that.

Another silence stretched, and she weathered the moment of quietude most poorly. What the fuck, she whispered. Why? Just why? What did I do? I was just trying to help people and use what I was making to fix the Rash. Why? Why was I burned for that. She chortled back a sob that threatened to break through her walls. Why did they have to kill Dawton for that.

Avo winced as she spoke the mans name. The sheer hurt that radiated from her rattled his wards.

COG-CAP: 11%

Im sorry, Avo said.

Kae fixed him with a blank look. Are you, Avo? Are you really?

A beat passed. No, Avo admitted Didnt do anything wrong. Fixed your mind. Feel Im getting hungry with how most of your eyes are. Can take away some memories if you want. Reduce the pain.

She coughed out a laugh. The genuine but pain-stained bloom of her smile was a welcome return. It fit her expression far better than the anger or sorrow that still loomed within her so. Thanks. But no. I appreciate your honesty but I just dont have enough in me to think about that right now. One more request: Can I kill you?

Avo blinked. You want to kill me.

She nodded. Im going to pretend that youre someone else. Its selfish and I know its not right and Im equating you to the Incubi and Walton and and Her voice trailed off as he constructed a mono-tipped spear in the air before her. Oh. She sniffed. Iuh, never actually stabbed anyone before.

He shrugged. Grab shaft. Angle point at victim. Move point into victim as fast as possible.

She took the weapon he made for her in shaking hands. So. I just She mimed spearing into him.

The head, Avo said. Body wont be that useful. He let out a hiss of annoyance. Here. Ill help. Directing the spear with his Sanguinity, he pushed it into her shaking hands and unhinged his jaw before crouching in close so she could stab up through the roof of his mouth. From his sides, he expelled a breath of entropy into the ground and carved another section of matter away.

His Rend vanished again.

Kae drew in a few quick breaths and let her hate build. Securing her grip on the weapon, she leaned back and pushed forward.

His Phys-Sim flashed with indications. She didnt have the mass, the weight, or the right vector. At best, she was going to pop one of his fangs off and then tumble over.

Making a snap-decision, he decided the expression of her will mattered more than the execution of it.

He caught the haemokinetic spear and drew it into proper position before gifting her a pull.

It was a strange thing, to be assisting in ones own murder.

But seeing how the ire finally burst free from her thoughtstuff as the tip of the spear slipped through his inner flesh and tunneled into his brain, he decided that the demand for a death or two really didnt matter when supply was essentially limitless.

The world spiked and flashed as his thoughts came to an abrupt pause. Something occupied the space of his cerebellum. That something levered up and the world smeared into flashing lights and drooping color.

Then, everything went out of focus.

RESURRECTION - 1%