Chapter 15-17 Threshold (II)

Chapter 15-17 Threshold (II)

My first encounter with our erstwhile kin was of pure chance. Born to worship the Seraphs and bred from the genetic stock of the Proselytizes, mine was the duty of ensuring compliance and accord among all members of the faith, and it is with great sourness that I look back upon the conduct of my youngest days.

Always I have sought mountains to climb and giants to chain. It was never a thing of triumph for me, but exploration. I seek limitsborders. Such was what led me toward my efforts to ensure that populations recently conquered or notably unruly were brought to heel.

Such then, was to be my lifea motivated servant who masked his personal pleasures of exploration under the guise of piousness.

Then came our first battles against the Ori. Those long savage years throwing bodies to stem their armadas from burning our shores as the gods tore the skies asunder, wrestling with each other to the toll of thousands dead between every heartbeat. Gentler days, those were. Without means of preserving each death, each miracle came at a cost, and without proper containment, each clash tore through the Chosen and savaged the tapestry around them.

In the throes of one such desperate struggle, I volunteered myself to be a vessel of might. I will neglect the name of the god, for that which is broken is best left regarded as a silent ruin, but know that such was the first true day of my lifethe day when my wife-to-be, with her Glaive fueled by a divine master of her own, cleaved through me and split my lord instead.

The world ruptured then, as it always had when such things happened. But with the breaking wound delivered upon my gods hubris, I found myself delivered alongside my supposed enemy to a place far beneath the waves, within the guts of a metallic beast long slumbering, with the people it swallowed frozen in time.

It is there that my chains were broken for the first time. Mine, and that of the surviving armadas yet wandering the darkness.

They freed me from my ignorance.

I offered them a point of refuge in this sea of tumult we call existence.

And in the delving of forbidden histories and past glories, I finally imbibed the true taste of sorrow as I realized just how very much we lost.

-Jaus Avandaer

15-17

Threshold (II)

Silence was complex language. On the antiquated wooden vessel, Avo stared at the stranger, their gazes locked and unblinking while Dentons gaze traveled across the waters to pierce the mists and further still.

Avo took the measure of the unknown entity and regarded his costume as gaudy. Robes rugged without being ragged, appearing paradoxically pristine and worn simultaneously. His face told a similar storyweathered skin and missing eye but no other scars to speak of. Paired with the animals that accompanied him, the stranger resembled a figure manifested from qualities described by a secondhand source; a bearer of a mythological atmosphere.

The iconoclasm within their damage meant something. It was all too neat to be otherwise. A lifetime of violence left its touch in capricious strokes. What afflicted the stranger was something far more deliberate.

Are you some kind of faither? Avo asked, breaking the quiet. The stranger offered a capitulation of their own, blinking in a display of sudden humanity as he rubbed his chapped lips together.

I suppose you may regard that of me, the Stranger said. I am a representative avatar more than a worshipper, however. The system has manifested me to prime your interest. I hold the guise of an old god playing at a man. A theme strides between us in inversion.

Avo considered the strangers words and disagreed. No.

The flint of interest was struck behind the strangers eye for the first time.

You arent real. And Im no longer so singular. This front does it work on other Godclads? Your appeal to mythology. Dont see the worth of it.

The strangers jowls tightened and he offered a quiet nod. One of his wolves twisted its head and laid curious eyes on the post-ghoul. Most Godclads find me someone worth mocking. The vagaries of my powers are long lost to history, and the nature of being a figurative god rather than a literal one leaves little impression on those who can abuse the fabric of metaphysical reality. Many ask me what miracles I possess and what becomes of me at the end of my tale. Many more ask what kind of god would portray themselves as a maimed man.

What is your answer to the last question? Avo asked.

The stranger hummed a low laugh. A desperate one.

A shadow fell over Avo and he found himself entering the cavernous hall beneath a crystal-clear portcullis. The entire affair had the taste of a fanciful vicarity wrapped in the mold of a Kosgan fairytale. Or maybe this was another deliberately maintained similarity. How much culture belonged to Idheim alone? How much was forgotten but inherited regardless?The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

Would you like to hear some advice before the proceedings begin? the stranger asked, leaning closer. So bright was the gleam in his single eye that it appeared as if a burning piece of coal, even in daylight. Let your truth flow. We can accept you. We can reject you. We see enough to see the truth of your nature. Whats left is how we present ourselves, and reactions behind our actions.

Honesty, Avo breathed. Not hard.

A ghost of a smirk crawled over the strangers features. Depends on the person. For some, its all but impossible, and they would give anythingeven an eyeto see if they can escape a predestined end. The shrug that followed felt far too rehearsed. Such, however, is just mythology. Its what we do with our beliefs that reveal the manifestations of character.

Avo clicked his fangs together but didnt speak. Something about this conversation plucked at his suspicion like a string. The nature of this dialogue felt too familiar, too supportive, too comforting.

These words were engineered for him and him alone. He knew that. More than this though, there was a strange familiarity to it all.

Walton.

This was reminiscent of remembered conversations with Walton.

Dipping one of his Echoheads into the red, he tasted the ichor and knew of the flavor immediately.

This was the blood of his kind. This was the taste of another ghoul.

Something struck the underside of the boat, and an awful click followed. The sensations felt as if someone was trying to claw their way through the wood, and Avo let out a slight hiss of annoyance at the situation. He shot a glare at the floating orb. Little wooden boat.

Quite literal, but it gets the point across. I must say, the expression never gets old.

Was expecting a bit more maturity from hyper-intelligent machine-minds. Is the vessel going to capsize?

The EGI bobbed. Well, that is a possible transition. Now stop taking the fun out of things and anticipating. Let your inhibitions loose. Wheres your sense of adventure?

Adventures get you snuffed, Avo said. He speared four of his Echoheads underwater and bade them to chitter. The waters rush did nothing to impede his senses, but when his phantom touch spread, he beheld nothingness drifting through the dark below him.

Frowning at Calvino, he extracted his limbs from the wetness. Deloaded them?

Maybe. Youll have to ask Threshold.

Poor sportsman

The boat burst apart beneath him in a sprawl of splinters. Plunging into the red, Avo drank in a mouthful of simulated blood as he turned into a swim, seeking to locate the EGI and Denton once more.

Voidwatch was kind enough to keep his Echoheads functional as they always were, so traversing the currents offered little difficulty.

There was just the small problem of the water surface being opposite what he remembered, and the falling pieces of metal spilling down into the depths.

Dappled light from the direction his talons were pointed, and he turned to right his ascent. The deepness of his plunge suddenly seemed far greater than it had been earlier, but Avo paid it no heed.

Nothing surprised him here. Nothing would shake him.

He treated his present situation as a mem-sim he was indulging. The parameters remained beyond his control, but he could still escape via disconnection or death.

Rising from deep waters, Avo found himself emerging from a warm bathtub instead. The symbol of DynaCleansea Highflame utilities subsidiarywas the first thing that caught his attention with its design being a kraken scrubbing a ship using multiple bars of soap.

The second was the howling sobs coming from the open door leading out from the bathroom.

Bathroom. That probably indicated he wasnt in a simulation of the Warrens then. Or at least high up in the Warrens. Stepping out, slots in the mirror folded over to offer him utensils for cleaning as he made his quiet egress. He had to dip and squeeze to even slip out from the doorway, but as he stepped through the other side, he could hear choking gasps paired with a litany of pained pleas coming from an open room just a turn away.

The apartment was narrow but of a high quality. This was a working family, but a comfortable one. Already, he felt the intruder. He wondered why Aegis or Voidwatch or whatever else they desired to call themselves had spawned him here.

So, Calvino said, voice humming loud in the back of Avos mind in a sudden instant. The ghoul caught himself before he jolted and gave a low hiss. Are you ready to begin formally begin the operative assessment process? Time to face the weight of our actions.

What are you planning? Avo asked.

Go inside. Youll see.

Pestered by the feeling that he was being herded, Avo used his Echoheads to sense the path forward before he stepped in. There were two individuals hugging a third that lay dormant on a jacking station. The room was decorated with other items of furniture and a yet-spinning locus.

Carefully, he inched his head into the room and watched as a man and a woman shook and pleaded for their obviously nulled juvenile son to wake back up.

The boys smooth brown skin and golden blonde hair triggered no memories within Avo. He had no idea who or what he was supposed to notice.

Thats because he didnt matter to you. At least, he didnt matter to you when you fried his mind. Remember how you spiked that vicarity? That day when you freed all those refugees.

Suddenly, Avo knew what Calvino was talking about.

Req. The Scalpers. The run Draus took him on after what Waltons node made him do.

This is one of them? Avo asked. One of the nulled.

When he spoke the words, he expected Calvino to give him an answer.

What he didnt expect was for the boys parents to turn and face him.