Chương 40: Book 8 - Chapter 36 - An attempt at theosis

In hindsight, I really should have expected this instead. I'd come in thinking I'd hear a monologue, maybe she'd attempt to drag it out with talk, and later ominous chanting before starting the laser show. Thought I'd need to be the serious one going straight for the heart of the matter. Instead, I found someone different from the To'Sefit I'd known. Feral. That's the best way I could describe it. Absolutely, and completely, feral.

The fear in her eyes was so evident, obvious and unmasked the second she turned to see me, that it took me by genuine surprise. Which was also the last I saw of her as the beam shot by a Feather - who was clearly no longer playing by any self-imposed rules - lanced out faster than I could react, directly through my head. I winked out of existence, back on the airspeeder.

"What the scrap."

"Keith?" Wrath asked over the comms.

"Your heartrate has spiked upwards. What have you discovered?"

"Uh, your sister's going through some family issues I think. Going to try and negotiate a little more." I took a quick scan over the battlefield, debating how much time I could sink into trying to convince To'Sefit to do anything. Journey's HUD was showing the airspeeder still had good amounts of ammunition, and one knight was running around the interior, dragging bullets from the non-operational weapons, restocking the ones that were.

Gunners were still putting down streams of fire downrange, keeping the invading horde from reaching us. Nine missiles left, and the hatches had all been sliced open.

"Your favorite marshmallow toaster oven has wings with occult blades on each feathertip." Cathida said as the armor detected where my eyes were going and the Crusader had made the rest of the connection herself.

"She did a drive by while she'd been baiting spare laser shots. Tenisent and the captain are still out in the field, in the middle of it." Father had taken some hits on his shields, but they were steadily recharging. Captain Sagrius remained at one hundred percent. His dot on the map moved a lot slower. I suspect he wasn't bothering to dodge any attack. The situation was under control. Barely. Things might change if we ran out of munitions, or the rest of the machine army converged on this front.

I tried reaching a tendril out to Superior, but he was gone. Still out trying to crack the shell. I better be faster then, because diplomacy has always been my strongest point. Everyone loved me.

"To'Sefit." I called out, landing on the data silt behind her again.

"I've come to bargain." This time I managed to dodge three of her lasers before another seven sliced me to pieces. I did get some progress from To'Sefit on making her talk however! By that, I mean she was screaming incoherently this time. Any progress is good progress. Even if I'm too late to use those stolen panels against the machine army here, having golden age destroyer level lasers in my pocket was going to be useful for something.

"Keith," Wrath said as I came out of the terminal again.

"Do you require my assistance? I may be able to speak with my sister directly if you can guide me to her." I was using the mite terminal space to move through and find To'Sefit, which isn't generally a great idea for machines. Mites are filled with jank programming and my personal theory is that the occult steadily creeped into their evolution until they're more occult than programming. Hence why every program I've come across in my travels has warned me about mite space and terminals.

Wrath herself had barely survived on the other side of the wall when she went asking for help. Which made it all the stranger that a Feather like To'Sefit seemed to be trying to communicate with them. I sent Wrath my quick recap of what I've found from her sister, and Wrath had an odd take on the situation.

"Feathers are not programmed to ever believe Mother would want them dead." She said.

"That knowledge alone is likely destabalizing her. If you are attempting to convince To'Sefit to turn against Relinquished, perhaps attempt to destabalize her further into a state of mind that forces her to adapt in ways Feathers could not?"

"I sense you have a suggestion."

"I do. Clan Lord Atius learned methods of fighting against To'Aacar, and the most successful one did not include using his blade to match against him." I remembered the fight. What actually hurt To'Aacar the most hadn't been his hand getting cut off. It was the implications. That he'd been tricked, outsmarted. That he wasn't out of Atius's league, but instead right in reach. And the clan lord had both challenged and beaten him at something.

Atius had basically turned To'Aacar catatonic for half a minute just by insinuating he wasn't living up to his name and title. I couldn't quite understand that or why it meant so much to them, but I also wasn't a Feather compelled in certain direction with an inner love for dramatics.

"What's To'Sefit's name mean again?" Wrath told me, and it made a lot more sense now why she was really breaking down.

"Let me give it one more shot first," I said, cracking my neck before reaching a hand out to the terminal.

"I can get through to her. What's my odds at it?"

"I would calculate that no one else would aggravate her more than you could." Wrath said, proud of me for all the wrong reasons. Once more I found myself at the sunken (Or rising?) ship. This time, instead of dropping down onto the floor to properly face my opponent, I took a few seconds to try and intuit what she was doing. The tree she was crouched over was more an upside down root. Something that was growing on the other side of the terminal here.

And I could see traces of it everywhere when I thought about it that direction. A lot of it was buried in the silt at the base of this area, but I could see tiny sprouts just about everywhere. Very faint lights flickered in all of them. The one To'Sefit was knelt besides was the largest of these roots. Glasslike, as if hardened to the water here, protecting the interior mites moving around like colony workers. To'Seift had her hands holding onto the glass, whispering under her breath.

She was trying to do something but it wasn't working. I stayed in the rafters, focused on the occult, and made my voice scatter across the terminal.

"A little under-dramatic for a Feather, don't you think? Shouldn't there be poetry or a chant before you try to kill me? Seems a little lame to just flat out attack me in the most optimal way right from the start. Isn't that more how a desperate cornered human would fight?" If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. She lasered up into the ceiling, ripping a massive hole through the terminal and out into the sea.

Small programs were sucked out into the open waters, where the larger programs that sulked outside the hull zipped over and started feasting. Other crablike programs scuttled into the edges of the hole, all of them bringing different bits of wood, putting them down into the destroyed sections. Light started flaring at the edges, and the mass of crabs slowly fixed and patched up the entryway while the smaller programs seemed to rally.

They were intentionally going outside, getting something from there, and rushing back inside once they'd captured their goals. Now I understood why they'd even try to swim out there where they'd be food for the fishes. I don't know exactly what they were getting, but the ecosystem here was at least alive and responding defensively against To'Sefit.

"Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice, shame on me. Kill me three times and I've got to be real dumb to let that same thing keep surprising me." I said, and she tried again to laser another section of the hull. There was some more incoherent screaming, and I could hear some panting too, like the lasers were costing her physical energy to use. Odd. Or was it her focus that was being stretched?

"How many shots can this terminal take before it collapses down? Your lasers might not be the best weapon here, maybe you should try to cudgel me with your staff? You know, keep it traditional."

"I will strangle you, human." She hissed out. Ah-ha! I got some words out of her.

"Now that's making me nostalgic even! So, what's got you all spooked? Trouble with mom?" Another set of lasers came out.

"You will NOT besmirch the Pale Lady!" To'Sefit doubled down.

"You do realize no amount of sweet talk will ever work on Relinquished, right? She wants you dead now, and has wanted you dead this whole time. You were useful to her until you weren't and discarded like a tool."

"Mother will forgive me for any trespass. I only need to earn her favor again."

"Said like every ten year old who's ever had mom and dad issues. Has it ever worked in human history? At least in the clan, when the parents are scrapped up, nothing the kid does can fix that. Change has to come from the parent first, you know?" And I didn't think Relinquished was included or cared to change anything. To'Sefit screamed, so I think that meant she knew. And she also lasered a few dozen more holes in the hull. I was really getting through to her, I could just feel it in the air.

A lot of healing going on here. Just needed to twist the knife in a little more.

"What's your name mean again? Oh right, I remember now! To'Sefit - The one stepping elegantly further into theosis. Now, what exactly are you doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, hiding under a roc-" The lasers tracked me down somehow, all converged and shot right through my hiding spot. I figured out how she tracked me down at the last second, but that was far too late for me to roll and weasel out of the way. Back into the airspeeder hull I woke up.

"I'm getting real close." I told Wrath.

"She's real unstable now. What's next?"

"I believe her need to live up to her personal identity is stronger than her base programming to serve Relinquished. Identity is a constant item that is chased after, while serving the Lady is a passive one."

"You got another idea, don't you?"

"I do. I will meet you at the airspeeder terminal. Tenisent, can you handle the fireteam organization?" Father clicked over the comms.

"The enemy has not shown any frequency scrambling attempts. So long as that remains the case, I can lead the warfront from here." With 'here' being neck deep in the enemy lines, causing absolute havoc. Wrath was better with strategy than Father was, especially in grand scale warfare, but a smaller pitched fight like this with a dozen knights to lead isn't completely outside his field of ability.

"I will attempt to be swift." Wrath said, her dot flying back to the downed airspeeder on my hud. She dodged one laser streak, and dove down, landing hard on the ground before springing straight upwards with a fan of wings until she landed next to me. Inside her soul fractal, Knight Highwind stood guard by the prison. He gave me a nod as I passed by, letting me know he'd keep an eye out for a changed situation out in the warfront, and a soul tendril from him would tap us on the shoulder if things got dire.

Otherwise, I took Wrath's hand and we both moved through the digital ocean together as I led her through the mite terminal and out. It was an odd feeling to be moving through the ocean using a mite starting point instead of the machine network like she was used to, but the terminal here wasn't so alien as to reject her signature. When we arrived once again, To'Sefit was still trying to do something with the mites. And it wasn't working.

A few glass branches had been snapped off, but the tips had already melted over onto themselves. She was running out of attempts, the glass tree having significantly shrunk between then and now. Wrath and I came up with a plan.

"Sister." Wrath started, voice echoing through the terminal.

"You don't have to do this." I felt the same attempt to triangulate us that she'd used last time, and squashed the attempt in the air. To'Sefit responded by opening fire everywhere, indiscriminately. An occult mirror image flashed ahead, jumping and cartwheeling in random directions. To'Sefit saw it, and hyper-focused. It was over in that instant. Rather, it was over the moment she'd aimed away from the real danger, and tried to strike a distant target in the opposite direction.

She couldn't see it, but I'd learned from A22 how to make a digital cover. A single large wooden panel, modified so it would only show what's almost directly behind it. If To'Sefit had been paying close attention, she'd have noticed something was off. But instead, she was trying to hunt down my images up ahead. Until it was too late, and Wrath kicked the panel down at the same time she leaped over it and descended down to collide against her sister with a fan of wings.

Two Feathers fighting each other hand to hand was a sight to see. But despite To'Sefit's experience and age, Wrath was simply better in every way when it came to close quarter combat. It was a flurry of punches and knife-like jabs, and it was clear who'd win this fight. In ten seconds, Wrath had knocked the staff out of her hand and kicked it away. In the next ten seconds, she'd managed to grab To'Sefit's hand, forced her into a spin, and wrapped her hands tight around her back, locking both her arms in a bear hug.

The frenzy ended. Something seemed to snap inside the Feather in the next heartbeat, and all the fight drained from her instantly. Inside Wrath's closed hug, To'Sefit stopped fighting completely.

"All right, is everyone finally calming down?" I asked, landing nearby and walking up.

"Because I for one sure don't feel too welcome with all this lightshow."

"What do you want?" To'Sefit hissed.

"Why are you hunting me down, even here? You've already won. Mother hates me. Hates us all, and I felt it." Wrath looked at me, and I gave her a nod. She let go, and To'Sefit crumbled into the ground. The giant hat's rim wiggled slightly, but remained rigid on her head despite it all.

"I said earlier, I've come to bargain." I started.

"And I meant it. We need your plates, turn off the security there, and we'll find a way to save you." She laughed, bitterly.

"You want me to turn on Mother herself?"

"I mean, yes? Is that really such a hard thing to do?" I held a hand out, and counted down the reasons on my fingers.

"She wants you dead, has been playing and using you this whole time. And probably doesn't even like your hat. So why not? Why not let us use your weapons to shoot down some of her stuff and make a mess of things?" To'Sefit didn't answer. She didn't say no, but she didn't say yes either.

"Sister." Wrath said, softly.

"You were already attempting to do this in your own way, weren't you? Here, in a hidden terminal, trying to connect with the mites. You cannot step into divinity from the machine side, and so you are attempting to with the mites instead. This is already an implicit turn against Mother. We could assist you with that step however." That seemed to get her.

"I have tried, again and again, to connect with them." To'Sefit started, "Their answer burns through my head, and I can't." She stopped, catching her breath before she broke down into hysterics.

"I can't, I'm trying and I can't. The only other divinity left in existence, and I can't even survive seeing them, let alone step through." She turned to Wrath, "How did you do it!?" Wrath looked back with a sad expression.

"I did not attempt a half-measure. I broke through completely to the other side. Even the unity fractal could not follow me there."

"Completely?" She looked down at her hands, half burned and blackened. The same kind of ash that reminded me of the burnt buildings within To'Orda's mindscape.

"I would be destroyed if I attempted that."

"I believed I would be destroyed as well." Wrath said.

"I had lost someone too important to lose. I was willing to give everything, including my life, to make it right. To fix it."

"You were desperate." To'Sefit said.

"I was." Wrath said.

"I'll die if I try that."

"You might." Wrath agreed.

"Well, you're going to die anyways when Relinquished remembers you exist." I said, "Not to bring down the mood here."

"She… she may still forgive me." To'Sefit said, almost hysterically.

"If I turn you both in, if I defeat you both, she'll forgive me." Wrath and I looked down at her with pity. We all knew. And so did To'Sefit. She lowered her gaze, her head hiding all her features now.

"I'll do it." She finally whispered.

"If you speak to the mites on my behalf, if you help me take the step forward into their domain, I'll unlock the plates."