Heroes of Karia Vitalus

Starting Over

2008-11-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

"Shut yer trap, Brick!" Doc Mizumi snapped from behind his welding mask as sparks flew from his precision cutting torch.

Brick, who was undergoing a popular surgical modification - being retrofitted for construction, grimaced and bit down hard on a chunk of leather. Since the Defense of Stardown there had been a disastrous shortage of medical supplies like anaesthesia. For that matter there had been a shortage of everything. A shortage of food. A shortage of water. A shortage of workers for the work of rebuilding... Many, like Brick, had opted to get the necessary implants without the pain meds.

And boy did it hurt having skeletal welds undone.

But squinting through the pain and the sparks, Brick could look out of Mizumi's reclaimed downtown surgery onto the central plaza of the ruins of Geneva Prime and it almost made him smile. There, a team of Biomade electrical engineers working with their Mechified partners were putting the finishing touches on the new memorial. Where the statue of the idealized Cheldrun had previously stood on the nose of an ancient spaceship, there now towered an unparraleled work of art in bronze and coursing energy. A Sygola tree. Hammered and welded from the rusted metal remains (what little the moths had left behind) of the former Goshi Tower, the trunk twisted high into the sky, splaying it's branches over the opening of the defunct blackrock mine and for several city blocks in every direction. Pulsating beams of light danced in mesmerizing patterns along the limbs of the tree and from each twig hung dozens of crystalline leaves - the shards of glass that were ubiquitous around the city. When the wind blew, they played a musical tune, and if you examined them up close you would see each one contained a name, laser-cut into the glass, of a victim of the war.

A sudden jolt of agony brought him back to himself and he shot a dirty look at Doc Mizumi, who was unsympathetic and shouted at him to stay still.

The Doc was doing good business these days. His shop was littered with old Bullet-Spitter parts, discarded in favor of more utilitarian implants. In what Brick thought of as a defining metaphor, he could even see an old gun-arm half disassembled on a nearby table - its parts being scavenged to make a scoop.

As part of the rebuilding effort, Doc Mizumi refused to accept any payment but food and spare parts, and from friends like Brick, the Doc wouldn't even take those things. So Brick tried hard not to take the pain personally, and he focused his thoughts on that memorial tree...

Up in the highest branches of the tree, Karak was attaching glass leaves to their respective twigs. He paused for each one and read the name it contained aloud. He'd kept a special handful of leaves aside, sorted them from the millions of shards to be the very last ones hung on the tree. No one but him would know he had done this, and he wasn't sure anyone but him would have cared. He heated each setting with his finger torch and carefully slotted each leaf into its place.

Omar.
Amos.
Tank.
Terry the Canary.
Mickey the Mixer.
The Surgeon.
Acetylene Sue.

Foxlings

2008-11-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

From her chair in the tower of the Choir of the Sky Elder Moon could hear the sounds of fosterlings at play outside. She had a momentary urge to get up and go to the window to watch, but the aches in her joints persuaded her otherwise. Without a hint of regret she admitted to herself that she was getting old. Not for her a centuries-spanning existence like the life of Elder Winter. She couldn't bear the absence of Mokuzai so long in any case.

Across the room, dappled by the rainbow light bouncing off the ubiquitous Nevergems, her son Hiro sat, looking serious like men his age often do.

"You'll enjoy being a grandfather, Hiro," she said with a concealed smile.

He seemed startled that she had interrupted the silence. "Yes, of course I will, but..." he frowned.

Moon drank her tea and patiently waited for him to work his emotions out. His youngest daughter, Lyre, was about to give birth to her first litter and something about the event was troubling him. As for Moon, she could hardly wait to meet the new kits.

"Mother, you know I'm happy for her, but she's so far away. Away from the safety of the Chantry or the companionship of her Choir. I just wish..." Hiro left the words hanging, and to her surprise his eyes began to swell with tears. Among the Prill emotions are usually expressed through song in a highly ritualized fashion. She supposed she had no one to blame but herself that her own family was so unconventional.

"Hiro, my son, you mustn't wish something different for Lyre. She chose to stay in the sanctuary cities. She is happy there. Those cities represent our hope for a lasting peace, it is good that so many like my granddaughter have the courage to make a life in common with the Children of Steel..." she was prepared to launch into quite a moving piece of oratory on this subject, but Hiro cut her off.

"You've misunderstood. I don't wish anything different for Lyre - it is for me. I spoke last night with Twilight. He has had a vision. You were right about the Riddle of Peace. You were right about all of that. That's the point. Twilight says our vow to Karia has been fulfilled. The forests are safe - and that this next generation will be the first to receive their vulpine forms back. We will be fox-children again!" He paused for breath, before continuing in a rush, "My grandchildren will live a life none of us has known for generations and I will miss so much of it. I wish Lyre was closer so that I could enjoy this."

Midway through his speech Elder Moon had begun crying her own tears, and by the end she was laughing and crying at the same time as the joy in her soul erupted.

"Oh Hiro! Every grandparent that has ever lived has wished their grandchildren were closer to home. You are not alone..."

She got up then, aching joints be damned, and crossed the room to hug her son. Neither of them said anything for a long time, but they clung to each other and looked out the window at a miraculous sky.

Episode 38, Part II: The Last Day

2008-05-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

A moment comes when I suddenly stop.

There are blackened corpses everywhere - I'm huge, and they're piled almost thigh-deep in places. They are all cooking and blackening as I stand there. My chest is heaving - I realize I'm trying to suck in more air, can't through the mask - I drop it, and immediately have to choke down puke.

The stench is too much. What do a million smoldering dead bodies smell like? I'll never have to ask. I'm an expert now on smoldering dead bodies. Come to me for all your smoldering dead-body needs. A laugh sneaks out and thickens into a sob. I take a last big gulp of air - the Eyeless are swarming over the latest line of their own mangled dead - or re-dead - and I come forward.

They've already overrun this position, and the one behind. I hear they're at the command center, then the radios went static-y so I only hear pieces of shouts or screams.

They've overrun the position, but not me.

***

I'm back on the Sennin, trying to scrape the charred flesh from my armor. I notice that the others hardly notice the smell anymore. I don't really either. A lot of it sloughed off when I shrunk back down, raining back down on the Eyeless and terror-stricken Goshi idiots screaming and running among them, panicked, crying blood. At the back are First Minds now. The Spaghetti Guy. That's when I decided I was actually going to leave. I know there isn't much I can do against Spaghetti Guy.

I also saw something that can't possibly be right. I thought - now Moses, that was a long time ago, that isn't now. That was when we first got the Sennin, when Trencher and Julian were...before you...before Katashi Blade...before all of that. When you went to the fire. When we met the Dusk Sages. That was the green-island-story. Now you're in the killed-by-eyeless-story.

But now they're the same story. "Did you see it?" Rei asks.

I'm kind of at a loss.

***

We meet back at the big machine. The God - no, the Artifact - has bonded to Sousa-whoever's machine, like it bonded to me. There are six conduits. I can't help but think legs, arms, heart, head - where they came out of me, when I got what's by far my biggest scar. They're talking and then Zipporah is there. She whispers something about our baby moving, quickening. I stop paying attention and start thinking of names - something like Goshi? To remind us? Goshen? Midian? That's a cool name. But what about a girl. Miriam? A family name.

Jin-Kalys is gesturing, then flaring his big flaps of colored skin, they're all talking to each other...I don't need to know what they're saying. The island is coming, flying through the fucking sky, and we have to bring it down. Jin points and I look up - there is a small orange mote nearing the top of the sky.

Before that mote gets to the top of the sky, over the city.

I find myself thinking...its just an island. Someone put it up there, and so we beat that person up and it comes down. Simple.

Rei says a name she keeps saying, but I finally hear her. Nero.

***

I remember my promise. When we met Nero. Arrogant son of a bitch, full of threats and dressed like a pansy. I wondered if I could shove him through that vent into the lava. Rei warned me against it. But I promised him. You get in our way again and I'll kill you. I'd never forgotten the promise, because I'd never said anything like that before. It just came out of me.

***

Tanuki is going ape-shit. He wants out so bad. It makes me happy, as it always has, to not give him what he wants. We're long past the point where we could have a good working relationship. Fuck you, big-balls. And, if I get my way, goodbye.

Rei is arguing with "Ama-chan" again. And she has a plan. I hope we're talking to Rei this time, and I hope, without even knowing what it is, that her plan fails. There's only one plan, and its where we die and the Enemy dies with us.

***

We land on the island, now barren of anything but sick plants and Kyo-tee-shee, and Kyoshi does...something...and I forget the promise. Light flares out of him, starts coming out of his mouth. The island wavers and drops a few hundred feet. I'm still on the Sennin. They're talking to Nero, but I can barely hear - their voices are so thick and slow. "...you're still alive!..."

"...wonderful..."

"...end malice..."

I'm looking at a schematic for a spaceship, listening to someone talking about our history, the history of the Cheldrun. We...we filled the stars, once. We flew between points of light that even light had to wait until it reached. We had worlds and worlds, moons, metal worlds that we built circling planets.

And the First Minds...were like the Dusk Sages. Some rebelled, and they became the Enemy, that chased us here, that is over our heads right now, driving their army forward. I look down at my hands, and light spills out...we could fly. I'm on the island now, and the fight is on.

All eyes turn to HighDive. I fill with every image of every frustrating damn thing she's ever done, my fists clench, but I know this is just a Kata - and then she's completely covered in knives. They rush past me and I feel the wind when they do like shots from a tank that barely miss, like artillery hitting the building next door. Everything slows down.

She's spinning in the middle of them, a tiny fucking squirrel hardly bigger than one of the knives, and she's just poking them with her paws and feet and grinning to herself. She's never there to hit...and as they miss her, the over-shoot, and go whirling back at Nero. I watch and grin and gape as fifty knives slash him and slam into his body, tearing up his stupid clothes.

Kyoshi attacks, slashing. Una shrieks and tears into him as she flies past. I throw myself into the column of energy that's holding him up and as I sail past, I hit him with an earthquake that sends shards of green gem slashing past us both and I go sailing up into the air.

As I fall and spin I watch another storm of knives miss HighDive entirely and slash into Nero instead, this time hitting harder than tank shells. He's staggered and the island falls a bit. We attack again, but the most dangerous thing to him are his own knives.

The next attack comes at us all. He's done with HighDive kicking his ass - everyone gives up at stopping her at some point. I throw up a dome to protect who I can ...and see Una fall and Kyoshi torn apart. Then High Dive circles the world in green fire, and winds us back to the moment before Kyoshi collapses. I use all of my energy, throw up two domes - "this is easier if you stick together" and let the knives hit me. I remember the tank shells from the battle of Stardown. They ping off of me, slowed by Rei's shield, and I feel energy flow into me.

I land, and Una is using her power again

I feel a heartbeat in my chest that isn't mine, echoing, I feel it through my feet, the whole world pulsing

You are mine.

The world is speaking to us. I feel like I burst out of my skin, filled with...something I can't even describe. Too much me. Too much Karia.

And suddenly the island is falling through the sky.

Nero is a...teenager? Standing there, touching the green NeverGem beneath his feet. "What was that? What was that voice?"

That was Karia, Nero. He yells at us to get off the falling island. Aimi is landing the Sennin. We're really, really doomed if we stay.

My promise. I remember the six conduits. I surprise myself.

"No. We need you with us." He argues for a second, the sky is falling away and I know the ground is rushing up toward us. "This is how we end malice." I grab him and brush past a surprised Rei into the Sennin and deposit him inside as we all scramble in, just in time.

Millions of kilos of green NeverGem island slam into the mountain range encircling Stardown, heaving the first few mountains aside, throwing up a cloud of green gem that blots out the sun and chokes everything in fine green dust. It grinds longer than I'd think, visibly shaking the ground, collapsing buildings in Stardown that are still standing, putting huge cracks in the ice that the refugees are fleeing across, until there is a rolling wave of chunks of NeverGem, some crashing down into the valley of Stardown, before it clatters to as stop.

Everything has stopped to watch. I can see that the Goshi soldiers have turned and are all fighting the Eyeless now. They must feel what I feel, what Rei and Kyoshi feel...what Nero felt.

***

Nero is just a kid. We explain to him what has to happen. That he's been chosen by Karia to save the world.

I think of Mokuzai. He's got Mokuzai's Kyo-tee-shee in there. I saw it when we fought him on the flying island. Mokuzai was chosen to save the world. Mokuzai, not you you sniveling monster. You're a kid and I wish things had been different for you, but you've killed more than enough to make you all grown up in my book. Old enough to fight, to change you mind...old enough to die.

And he seems to want to. He makes sure that the machine will kill him before he agrees. I save feeling bad about this for later.

For now, I'm making sure my promise is kept, by the machine if not by me. We can't feel bad for every twisted bastard child who tries to kill millions of people, who clearly killed the last of the Dusk Sages so that he could have more power. There's so much to feel bad for at this point that this little broken kid is just a drop in a big, big bucket.

***

We land, and we're ready. I get to see Zipporah one last time. One last time. What do you say? They're talking and I'm not listening. She's clinging to me and we're crying.

I can't help thinking about the future. I forget about the past. I think about...the world without us, without the Oni, without the renegade First Minds or the greedy, stupid Kyo-tee-shee. Will she name him Moses, if he's a boy? Will he grow up Prill or Cheldrun? Or will it be a girl? Do Karians know that kind of thing?

Its time. The end is here. Kyoshi goes onto the Sennin...to say goodbye. Goodbye.

As I gently stand up and sidle toward the Sennin, I practice saying it. My mind can't wrap around the word.

I set Zipporah on the ramp up into the Sennin. I try to say goodbye but what comes out is "I'll see you again, one way or another. But you can't be here when this happens."

Real romantic. Will they put that on your tombstone?

Will there be anybody to carve a tombstone?

We just look at each other as the Sennin lifts off. I keep looking long after its too small to see clearly, faded into the green dust still raining down on us. I just...ran out of things to say.

I walk back to the machine, walk over to HighDive. I've been saving a surprise for this moment, once I learned what had to happen with the machine. I stand over her, point to the armored plate on my chest.

"Lefty-loosey?"

Her eyes light up. She straightens, reverently. I can see her little heart pounding through the fur of her chest. She scampers up, puts a pay on one of the bolts holding the armor in place.

I've loosened it. Her eyes go wide. Wicky-wicky. Wickywickywicky...and the bolt falls away, clattering to the floor.

The moment is interrupted.

Jin-Kalys says the Oni need to be lured here. I grimace at HighDive - sorry - and tighten the bolt back down.

I've got a little mana left. I run for the stairs, swelling so that I can just step past them. I leap over the battling Laughers, trailing cinders, and land amongst the Eyeless, shield up and batting them aside. And that's it. I'm all out.

***

I met Suraisu-Oni and snapped off one of his drill-arms, tossed him into the air, shot him, so that he was visible from a long way off, and then ran back to the chamber.

I leap inside, shrinking, and see the other Oni have found us already. Kyoshi is saying something -

"We've come here to fulfill our purpose. In the name of justice, we will create balance. We will find the power to forgive, and will bring our people freedom. And there will be peace."

I grit my teeth and jam the cable into my chest, having knocked the plate protecting it free. We all do the same, Nero last (I think of jamming the thing in his chest if he hesitates too long, but I don't have to). The Oni come down into the chamber. Chunks of us are teleported away. HighDive withers and dies of old age in a sea of sludge. Una is incinerated. And - just as Rei, dying, gestures and the cable slips out of my chest - Suraisu-Oni's drill bit erupts from my body.

I grab for the cable, but my hands are covered with this slippery rainbow stuff. Then I think I'm dreaming because Zipporah is here, puts a hand on my arm, looks at me and then slides the cable back in. Its a happy dream, this dying-dream. I reach back, find Suraisu's head, think of Mokuzai a last time, grab his head and twist until I hear the squeal of machinery tearing.

"My child will live in a world without you."

***

The rainbow stuff falls out of all of us, is devoured by the Oni, who shovel it into their mouths, slurping it up, down to the last drop -

But the last drop catches, won't come out. I feel Tanuki laugh. This isn't funny, Tanuki.

Yes it is, little-balls.

***

Everything goes backwards, fast, faster, rainbow goop rushing into us, the Oni deflating and becoming like ghosts, then being sucked in, and it all flows through us into the machine. There is swirling light everywhere - all of the Kyo-tee-shee, swirling madly like stars - and they're all sucked in, and there is a burst of light, and the Wandering Star is torn from the sky, breaking apart, chunks trailing fire like burning hail...

***

The tubes slide from our chests easily. It is entirely quiet. The green dust has settled onto everything, like we've been lying here like this for years, undisturbed. Jin-Kalys is crumpled in a corner, in a kind of lizardly shock. Zipporah is sprawled out on the ground in front of me.

The wound in my chest is gone. I pick up Zipporah, and in a daze, climb the stairs.

The city is...a mess. The Eyeless are all gone. There is gore and charred remains of buildings everywhere.

From the park nearby, where the Anakarix were draping their wounded in the trees, Boristakan, looks around, looks at me.

We start laughing.

***

Back inside, HighDive has found her battered, pitted, scarred pot, filled with the names of the dead inside. She turns it right-side-up, rubs out the names written there, fills it with water, and starts making pasta.

Prelude to the End

2008-05-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Kindaichi of the Topaz Gull Clan, formerly 7th Dan of Washi San Academy, in disgrace, had never in her life been so exhausted. Resting against a blood and oil-smeared boulder, inside her mecha, she sobbed, but so dehydrated was she that no tears came. She no longer even had the energy to marvel at the depth of her new bond with her mecha. She could feel the stone she was leaning upon as though it were flesh and not metal which touched it. Hours ago that sensation had been magnificent. Now it was just another factor contributing to her exhaustion.

Eyeless hordes swarmed over the rise barreling her over with their numbers. Their tentacles latched onto her limbs trying to restrain her. In her weakened state, they might have succeeded, but some impossible reserve of determination made her bring her Mochi-Yari to bear. Lancing dead Cheldrun in half, she forced herself to rise out of the mass.

To her left and right other mecha labored, wading through tides of the Enemy, as exhausted as she, perhaps even more bereft of hope and yet they were carried by iron discipline, and absolute confidence in the rightness of their cause. Since this morning dozens of her colleagues had fallen. She watched as Ishikawa of the Jade Falcon Clan was liquefied by some horrible beam from Karaku Oni. The molten ring through the torso of his mecha glowed orange as he fell in a heap and was buried under the advancing army. He fired his bow twice more, annihilating several eyeless with each shot, before dying.

Kindaichi would give no less. At this very moment refugees were fleeing for safety. There was no hope of ultimate victory, but each second she bought would be one more second for the refugees to flee. She told herself this because she could see no redemption for herself in this situation. Every ounce of her body screamed in agony with each movement. Soon, she knew, nothing would keep her in motion and then she would be at the mercy of the eyeless... or she would pass out and her mecha would be dismissed... or an Oni would return... or all of the Oni...

An eyeless was flying through the air, toward her helmet. She recognized him, even without his eyes. It was a high-ranking Hei Shi named Arrow, one who had brought Goshi Directives to Washi San Academy upon occasion. Her Mochi-Yari took his head off in one blow.

Not yet. She would not die, yet.

***

At best the infirmary could be called an endless triage clinic. Nothing approaching actual medicine was being performed here any longer, the Surgeon lamented. It was impossible to even attempt it with the thousands of casualties being rushed through the doors every minute. The injured and dying spilled out of the walls into the fields beyond, laying on tarps and in the grass, not neatly, but piled up. Those who could pull themselves out of the pile to find a wall to lean against were probably those with the best chance of survival, Surgeon concentrated on them. The rest just moaned and wailed for relief, but there was none to give.

A young man, too young to have any right to be participating in the fighting, sat by himself in a rare clear spot on the ground. Both arms were gone from the shoulders. He rocked back and forth slightly, dizzy from blood loss. He would be dead in moments. The Surgeon laid him back on the ground, whispering in his ear though he doubted anything he said would penetrate the shock. Suddenly the man was quite lucid and he looked the Surgeon in the eyes as he spoke.

"They're coming. More are coming. It's not over."

The Surgeon thought he meant the Goshi army, but moments after he left the man's side to attend the next victim he noticed corpses twitching, going into paroxysms, their limbs quaking. It was happening everywhere. Terry the Canary, covered head to toe in viscera, came running toward him, shouting incomprehensibly through her sobs. The corpses were rising. Coming to their feet, without eyes in their heads, they began to consume the wounded and the dying.

Terry embraced him and he thought he heard her say "we tried," and "die together." He would have shaken her out of her hysteria in different circumstances, but he found he could do nothing but hold her tightly to himself and nod and weep. She was always a flighty little girl. Too fragile for times like these. Everyone is too fragile for times like these. Suffering like this was never meant to be inflicted on any man.

He barely realized it when a barbed tentacle burst through Terry's rib cage. She was quiet now, but he kept holding her. He whispered that it would be okay, though he knew it could never be.

He didn't see or feel the blow that felled him.

***

Perched on a branch, Sings-Like-Frog, looked out over the frozen surface of Stardown Lake at the stream of refugees running for their lives. In the distance the mountains were on fire. Smoke poured into the air making midday seem gray and dingy like dusk. Only the sun and the fire of the Wandering Star pierced the gloom above. The Star was almost at its peak and it filled the aging Zipsum's heart with forboding.

Below him, interspersed through the trees were the assembled choirs of the Prill. The greatest massed choir in generations. Even in the midst of the devastation it made him glow with pride to have spent his life among the fox-children. In his warbly croaking voice he sang along with a number of the songs which were familiar to him. No mystical power filled him when he did so. He could not so much as turn one drop of water to ice, but he felt as if he were part of something tremendous, something worth doing.

The terror of the refugees who were arriving on the south and eastern shores of the lake was palpable, but there was an undercurrent of gratitude as well. They were rushed under the canopy of the forest and away to safety where whole cities had been sung into existence for them. Most had no way of comprehending what was happening. They had never before seen a Prill or heard of their wonder-working powers. They stumbled, dumb-founded, between paralyzing fear and disbelief.

In time, they would remember this as the beginning of a lasting peace. That was Elder Moon's hope. Saving millions of Cheldrun from destruction would be the seeds of unity for Karians and Cheldrun. These refugee cities will last. They will flourish and they will remind the children of steel of the debt they owe. Sings-Like-Frog was no diplomat, but he believed her when she spoke about it. She was passionate, and convicted. She persuaded every Karian who heard her and they willingly lent their help to the cause. Something good must come from this travesty.

From where Sings-Like-Frog was perched he could count tens of millions of good things running across the ice.

***

Fighting alongside the Zipsum was good. Fighting with the strength of Karia was even better. Edana Griolsa ripped the tentacles off an eyeless before her and kicked it so hard the rib cage collapsed. Before it hit the ground two Zipsum warriors were on it, plunging poisoned knives over and over again into the flesh. Everywhere she turned her blows were followed by Zipsum knives and arrows. She set them up, and the Zipsum cut them down. It was beautiful to watch.

Overhead a tank whistled through the air. When it plowed into the ranks of the enemy it sent a shockwave of flesh rippling for dozens of meters in every direction. She charged up to it and ripped the cannon free from its moorings. She swung it around her in a great arc, clearing a circle of the dead, breaking backs, crushing skulls. One ducked under her swing and plowed into her at the waist trying to knock her off her feet. She neither braced herself nor avoided the attack. The eyeless merely bounced off her like a granite column. The Zipsum knives silenced him before he could get up.

Deep in her breast a proud Gogajin heart was beating. Decades of rage at the suffering of her people combined with the unbelievable hope that the unification of the clans provided made her and every other Gogajin unstoppable. They would neither tire, nor weaken. They would not surrender or retreat. They would hound the foe across every centimeter and kilometer of the continent if need be. They were Gogajin. Their enemies would die in despair, but they would die with a loud and raucous laugh.

***

Aimi could get used to this feeling - the feeling of rushing through the clouds at the helm of an airship. For most of her life she never questioned the Cheldrun prohibition against taking to the sky, but now that she knew how seductive it was she began to understand it better. Not as good as sex, but not completely dissimilar.

The one thing she did not like about flying the Sennin is how conspicuous it was. Used to arriving unannounced with a surprise knife to the back, it was against her nature to be so exposed to every eye as she whistled through the air. There was no longer any meaningful surface-to-air threat from the Goshi army... was it really Goshi anymore? But it kept her on edge every second. An Oni, she knew, could obliterate the Sennin without effort. She dare not relax her guard.

To make matters worse, Kiyoshi and Rei and friends were always insisting on being deposited as close to the damn Oni as possible. Not only did she object to exposing herself and the Sennin to such danger, she in no way approved of Kiyoshi's reckless behavior. She had a feeling that her approval meant about as much to him as the opinion of a rock. Then reflecting on the awe these people seemed to have of Karia - even believing that Karia was alive and influencing them by giving them their remarkable powers, she glumly noted that her opinion might matter less than that of a rock.

He'd better survive long enough for me to punish him, she thought to herself.

***

Zipporah felt something like butterfly wings fluttering in her uterus. Her eyes widened and she clutched her stomach. It was the first sensation of the life within her and she was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. There was a spark of joy, yes, but it seemed so fragile in comparison with the host of fears that pressed in around her. The meaning of this child was yet to be determined. Everything that it could be could so easily be destroyed by the war... by the enemy... if she lost Moses...

Over and over again lately she had forced herself to contemplate his death. It was the last thing she wanted, and yet every second it was a terrible possibility. Now it seemed a near certainty since the hopes of so many were depending on him... depending on his willingness to sacrifice himself.

He would do it, she knew. She couldn't be angry about it either. She would do the same in his place, but knowing this in no way reduced the enormity of her grief. Instead she was angry at the Dusk Sages. Angry at Karia. Angry at the All. It was not right, not fair, not in any sense good or just that so many should have to suffer for others to live. Perhaps, she reflected bitterly, the Question was nothing but a cosmic wager. A callous game of chance with the lives of, well everything, at stake.

Including the life in her uterus. That above all is why she knew she would lose Moses. If he could do something to ensure that life... anything. Could she bear to see this child grow and live, but never rest in Moses' embrace again?

***

This command center was really no such thing. It was a lost cause. His officers were dead or dying or rising as eyeless. His soldiers were fleeing or cowering or nonresponsive to his commands in any case. The few mecha he still had fighting were beyond his reach and there were no more tanks or artillery and even if there were they wouldn't be of much use. Daitokuji Ichirou, patriarch of the Silver Phoenix Clan and general of the Stardown Defense Force was grudgingly forced to admit that they had indeed arrived at the end of the road.

Despite the unbelievable efforts of the Heroes of Karia Vitalus, there was no stopping this swarm of eyeless which had enveloped them. He urged everyone to standfast, knowing it was pointless. Those who would fight would fight. The rest were already rushing after the refugees for the frozen lake. Dimly he hoped that his wife and child were safe among those escaping. There was nothing he could do about it either way.

Having given his final orders, and knowing there was nothing left that any general could do to reverse this tide, he calmly walked from the bunker into the open. Bullets ricocheted off the cement around him. He ignored their dangerous buzz, and turned to face the oncoming rush of the Enemy. Countless millions had been killed or destroyed, yet millions more were coming. Among them the cruel, but vibrant First Minds walked, propelling the demonic army by their twisted power. They had overcome every obstacle the SDF placed in their way. They were almost through the pass, to pour on the unprotected refugees below.

One obstacle still remained for them to overcome, however. Daitokuji Ichirou, 12th Dan of Washi San Academy, the greatest mecha pilot who ever lived. He crossed his arms in front of him and silver light rippled over the field.

***

Heaving tanks through the air is hard work. Even Balder had to admit that the Cheldrun know how to make some heavy shit. The heaviest thing in a Gogajin village is a slab of stone, or a plowshare. Nowhere near as heavy as a tank. Not that he was counting, but he was pretty sure he'd hurled about 43 of them so far, and now they were staying away from him or driving for the hills, or unoccupied and lifeless. That was the thing about tanks, without their crew they're just a hunk of metal.

There were less tanks about now, and less artillery, and less Cheldrun actually. The enemies he was wading through now were eyeless, every one of them. The living children of steel had turned on their own army, shooting the eyeless rather than running alongside them. It was one hell of a clusterfuck, because the Goshi soldiers didn't know which side they were on. They were shit-scared of the eyeless, but the Gogajin weren't their friends either. Balder decided to let them shoot first to see if they were an enemy. If they fired on him (to little effect since Karia was blessing him with her strength), then he gave them the tank treatment. If they screamed and ran he let them go.

Over the sounds of the battle he could hear little, but from time to time he heard a Gogajin clan crying their motto and regardless of which clan it was he would shout it along with them and charge with renewed vigor. They were united now, the Gogajin. And Grim, Grim of all fucking people was their leader! Their High-fucking-King! He was doing a good job making a show of it too. He had charged to the top of a rise, near the middle of the enemy army, and planted his standard, waving it for all to see. He taunted the foe to take the hill from him and for hours none had been able to displace him.

Balder made his way that direction, cutting through swaths of eyeless with a torn sheet of metal. From behind Grim he could see a small, unassuming man approaching. Balder recognized him as a First Mind, and he shouted to warn Grim, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of an artillery shell exploding nearby. Rainbow rays burst from the First Mind's fingertips obliterating several of the Gogajin in Grim's entourage. Grim turned around to face his new opponent and Balder could tell he didn't recognize the danger. Grim threw his arms wide, taunting the First Mind, exposing himself. The First Mind smirked and raised his hands...

Then Balder was on him. He had a hand in the First Mind's mouth, and an arm around his chest. Some dark energy tore at Balder, turning his flesh to spaghetti, unraveling him like a wool jumper. It hurt more than Balder cared to admit. He squeezed the First Mind with all of his might, but for his unassuming appearance he was unbelievable strong. The dark energy continued to shred Balder like so much confetti. He lost his balance and tumbled to the ground with the First Mind still in his grasp.

Balder's legs began dissolving. A metal plate burst free from his shoulder when the screws could no longer find purchase in bones quickly turning to gelatin. Balder screamed for Grim to run. Run for his fucking life, but he couldn't see or tell whether Grim had listened. The First Mind continued struggling in his grasp and Balder forced his hand further into its mouth as his vision became blurry, and the world started to fade.

The blackness claimed Balder, but not before he ripped the First Mind's skull, without the jaw, from its moorings and tossed it into the fray.

***

At the eye of the storm Jin Kalys labored, obsessively, over his newest equations. They made no sense, even to him. Frankly he had given up certainty some time ago. He understood the exigencies of the circumstances. He had no more time to make them right. No more time to be certain, and the math... his dreams weren't coming as they usually did when the equations were close. His subconscious assimilation of nine branch formal logic must not have been as thorough as he'd once imagined, because now... when he most need to be sure.

Some luxuries life does not afford us. This solution would have to do.

The new inertial dampener/difference engine combination artifact was bulky, intricate, and Jin would even venture, aesthetically pleasing. In other times he would have joyfully joined Sousauryoku in an thorough study of the device. It made him feel amateurish to be so hasty with his preparations, but at this very moment the Eyeless were pushing into the streets of Stardown and the Wandering Star was nearly at it's apex. In less than an hour the fate of life would be decided and in some small way he would take part in that decision. Of any debate he had ever waged he most hoped to earn a piercing for this one.

Sousauryoku leaned over his shoulder to read the last page of notation. For once he didn't make a snide comment, but merely gave a weary look that said "I hope you're right."

"There is no other choice," Jin Kalys assured him.

***

From her birth in fiery glory Karia had been a witness. Only in these last hours was she also an actor. It gave her indescribable pleasure, but also debilitating anxiety to at last be involved in the cosmic drama. For a child whose lifespan is measured in billions of revolutions the span of an hour is the blinking of an eye. She watched, unblinking, as that last hour unfolded and she admitted to herself at last, what she had denied for billions of years - that she was not neutral in this conflict, that her heart sang to her of the beauty of life and could not abide the thought of an eternity without the living. She watched, but not as an enraptured audience, she watched as one who stood much to lose. The living were making their choices. The meaning was being played out. The Question would at last be answered.

Life?

Episode 38, Part I: The Last Day

2008-05-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Oni.

Always the Oni, pressing our defensive lines. I can feel the after-echoes of a thousand panicked soldiers. Moses's thoughts shine like a beacon, and Kiyoshi's are, as ever, veiled behind the void.

The Oni are attacking en masse.

We have no choice but to face them. We're the only ones who can.

We go.

There they are, striding across the battlefield like demons. Karaku-Oni lays a dozen bunkers to waste with molten light. Asamu-Oni flows over a division and it ages to death even as it fights. Suraisu-Oni sends piledriver after piledriver blow towards a mecha edged in silver flames, and I realize at once that this is Ichirou, fighting at the side of his men. Before we move, I drape a telepathic sensory net around the minds of each of my companions, and a window-within-window field of their own perceptions snaps into being in my sight.

We are as prepared as we will ever be.

We leap from the Sennin and descend on the battle, katas whirling. I get a brief glimpse of Suraisu-Oni sending a bludgeon my way. Then something hits me, and my thoughts are scattered. I land on my feet, barely. There is heat, and a bright light, and I look up just in time to see Karaku-Oni's molten beams converging on... me.

There is heat, and pain, and a bright green light, and then darkness for the instant between the destruction of my optic nerves and the cooking of my brain inside my skull. ... For an instant, it seems to take forever. I have time. Time to realize that I'm about to die. Time to realize that I've failed. Time to feel the heat searing through my face and my body. Time ... reverses.

There is pain, and then a glorious burst of vision, and I can see the world again. Karaku-Oni's beams flow back into his wingtips, and I ascend. The damage caused by Suraisu-Oni is undone, and I ascend. Back... back... back into the Sennin, and suddenly we are not yet upon the battle, and High Dive is panting for breath.

I stare.

"High Dive," I manage after a moment. "... Thank you."

The others are determined to stop the Oni, and I cannot let them go alone, but I will not suffer the same fate again. I refuse to die such a meaningless death.

We leap from the Sennin, and I head straight for Suraisu-Oni. With one hand I call up a hundred black tentacles, each one seeking out a target in the horde of eyeless below, each one sustaining me, filling me with power. My mind expands, and I focus it all into my right hand. My psychic knife crackles with energy as I descend towards Suraisu-Oni, and all at once I see Mokuzai, mangled and dead, beneath those pistons, and my vision goes red.

I plant the blade in the Oni's chest and hiss, "This is for Mokuzai, you bastard," releasing a massive pulse of psychic energy directly into whatever it is that passes for the creature's nervous system.

It looks down at the blade for a moment, almost nonplussed, and then falls over, paralyzed.

I feel... satisfaction.

I have no time to dwell on the minor victory. Kiyoshi, Una, and the others are already in motion. High Dive dashes to the front of the battle and does... something. There is a green pulse of light, and every Oni and every Eyeless on the battlefield immediately turns its attention to her.

In an instant, she's gone, dashing off towards the horizon with the Oni and the Eyeless army in pursuit.

Moses and I exchange incredulous looks. Then he and Ichirou pin the paralyzed Suraisu-Oni and lop off his head with Ichirou's mecha-sized katana.

I watch for a long moment as my friends rush into battle. Moses striding forward, glowing like a coal, Kiyoshi carried in Una's talons as she carries him from location to location, High Dive leading the entire enemy army by the nose, and I'm at a loss.

What can I do to help here? Even with my katas, I'm not much of a fighter. There's nothing I can do here that will equal their efforts.

The whispers of a thousand panicked thoughts catch my attention, and I realize abruptly that there is something I can do after all. I sit atop the bunker even as Ichirou descends to direct his army, and I reach out with my mind, brimming with power.

I am Ichirou.
I am Lightning.
I am Matthew.
I am a soldier drowning in his own blood.
I am an artillery operator, determined to do her job.
I am an officer, frantically directing his men and hoping desperately that they don't realize how fucking terrified I am.
I am a Heishi, watching the battle with jaw dropped open and horrified beyond all measure.
My mind expands. More. More. More.
This soldier. That soldier. A dozen over here. Fifty officers across the battlefield. Sixty artillery operators. More.
I am Allskin, Biomade, Mechified all united within one mind:
I am Cheldrun. A thousand minds united, until 'I' is a term which scarcely holds meaning.

I see the battle from a thousand viewpoints at once, and the intensity of the experience nearly overwhelms me.

Then I begin to exert my will. To direct myself, and through me, our army.

Moses grapples with Asamu-Oni. Una and High Dive do battle with the great rotting beast. High Dive flashes across my perceptions in the blink of an eye.

The battle rages, and my joy is infectious.

I can see. Everything.

All one and one all. Kiyoshi and Una have destroyed the great beast and seek out their next target. I spare a moment's attention to telekinetically extract Moses from Asamu-Oni's body, and another to send a blast of black energy into the horde of Eyeless that had surrounded High Dive at last.

I gesture, and she floats towards me.

Una snatches her up a moment later, and I release her, returning my attention to... everything.
A moment later, she deposits High-Dive in my lap. I absently rub the Zipsum's belly as we wait for her to recover from having exerted herself far too much.

Kiyoshi can't get close to the thing that had been Katashi Blade. I send out the telepathic call: "Concentrate all artillery fire on this point." This point? The Oni.

He ignores the first volley, his shield absorbing the majority of it.

... He is not so lucky with the second. The Oni vanishes in a storm of smoke and flame.

The battle rages on. High Dive returns to the fight, and brings death everywhere she goes. Asamu-Oni is dead: Moses killed him. Garandu-Oni is dispatched a moment later, and then all at once, it is only Karaku-Oni who remains.

Una fights him like a mad thing, and I do not understand her actions: she is nearly killed, but she does allow Kiyoshi and High Dive the time they need to close.

Karaku-Oni sees me. Rei-me. I am almost unaware of the danger. What does it matter if a part of me falls away? What is one part next to this... this... magnificence?

A molten beam strikes me in the chest, and I know pain, fear, and darkness. The gestalt shatters, and I am only Rei again. Minds whip about every which way for an instant... and then I come back to my senses, staring up at the figures of Kiyoshi and High Dive and Una as they tear Karaku-Oni to pieces.

It is done. The battle is over. I look down at my chest and see the flesh knitting over the exposed bone, pain receding, muscle and tissue actively regenerating.

Una's influence.

As soon as my lungs are functional again, I let out a long, slow breath.

We've won. For now. And yet I can't shake the feeling that something is about to change. ... I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. As Una helps me to my feet, I briefly wonder where Nero is in all this.

---------------

Elder Moon wants to speak with us: we return to Jin-Kalys' sanctum, and we there hear her make her case.

She thinks he knows how to solve the riddle of peace. I am ready to dismiss her at once, but something stops me. A feeling. A strange thought, bubbling up from my memories of the gestalt, and for a moment I'm not sure if I'm Rei, Ichirou, Matthew, or something else entirely.

I hear her speaking as if from far away, but much closer is the old, familiar whisper of Inase Spark, drowning out even Amaterasu's insistence that I must not do whatever it is that Elder Moon is suggesting.

Thoughts of fear. Thoughts of relief.
I rise to my feet.

Moses can sense Zippora's pain and horror, and I wonder how that's possible: he's no telepath. Aimi knows. She can sense it immediately, even on the other side of Stardown. Kiyoshi hasn't given enough thought to the psychic consequences of having been intimate with a telepath. She knows.

Elder Moon is speaking, and I'm trying to think of a way to overcome the Oni by force of arms, and all I hear is my father's voice.

"Obsessed with death, with pain, with suffering. If death is all you can see, then death is all you deserve."

I look up, startled.

There he is, with the void all around. There he is, looking older now, as he did when I saw him in the wreck of the Bosphorous.

Inase Spark.

"I don't want to die," I say.

"Is that really true?" he asks.

... No. No, it's not. You can't feel the joy of battle and not wish to taste it.

"You're not alone, Mikomi," he says. "You have long held things worth fighting for. Do you have anything worth dying for?"

I stare at him for a long moment.

All at once, I'm standing with the others in Jin Kalys' sanctum, and Elder Moon is echoing my own words back to me even as Amaterasu shrieks to drown her out: "We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves by the thousands - by the millions - for one another. Wasn't it you who said that, Rei?"

...

Sacrifice.
She wants us to use the machine. The machine and Moses's machine combined. Sacrifice.

Purpose.

I nod. I understand. Amaterasu disagrees, but for once, I ignore her.

I think I finally understand Purpose.

And that's when everything goes to hell.

Kijuuki's New Master

2008-05-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Feeling as though the world were strangely distant, Kiko reflected.

In the two months since the Sennin had left the Emerald Isle Kiko had learned more about life and the universe than in all the years preceding. Studying at the feet of the Dusk Sages was an incomparable feeling of exhilaration. They had the gift of literally putting the knowledge directly into her mind with a touch, and so she learned at an unprecedented rate. She supposed the only reason that they worked as they did in stages is to prevent her from going mad, or cracking in half with the strain of a rapidly expanding world view. Even so, each new discovery was such a revolution for her she began to suspect that it must require immense patience on their part to accept her ignorance.

She learned, for example, that Karia was speaking more than ever these days and what she whispered was somehow comforting to the Dusk Sages. Though she never heard the planet speak, she learned to tell instantly when a Dusk Sage was hearing her voice. They became serene, beatific even, and afterward they thrummed with happy energy. It made her wonder if her admiration of the Dusk Sages was similar to their feelings for Karia.

She looked beside her. The dictionary of Cheldrun that Kiyoshi had made for her lay open on the ground. She reached for it, but it was too far away. Still, it was a welcome reminder of all that had transpired. Everything she had seen.

It seemed too immense that one little Prill like her should come to see and know so much, and the more the Dusk Sages taught her the more she realized that it was a tiny fraction of the wonders of the All. It is a shame, she thought, that we all unravel. There is no way to see it all, know it all.

Kiko was relatively certain that she would never know who the man with oily hair and lace cuffs was, nor why he behaved as he did. He was a child of Steel, with eyes like Rei's, but he had arrived on the Emerald Isle without a boat or any other means of transport. The Dusk Sages observed him from a distance without saying anything. They revealed no emotion, but Kiko felt apprehension on their behalf. For a while she told herself that he would want to be a disciple like Kiko, Ramora, and Maruko, but if he had come to study, then he chose the wrong masters. A week after his arrival he was spotted in the company of resisters.

In the mornings Maruko had taken to singing, from memory, all the Prill lore that she could dredge up. Kiko tried to sing along, but Maruko had a better memory and Ramora had a better voice, she felt ashamed. The Dusk Sages genuinely delighted in the company of their creations, though all of their interactions were colored with melancholy. The creations on the island were sick, Kiko knew, and the health of the Prill was a sad reminder for them of the tragedy of their exile. Mostly it was better to sing and learn and observe than the alternative, even if the unraveling is true.

If.

Sadly, Kiko knew that the unraveling was not only true, but inevitable. She looked down at her chest, pierced by two daggers. Another in her thigh was embedded so deep it pinned her to the ground.

The man with the red eyes had come at sunrise to the Flame of Dawning where all the living Dusk Sages were gathered. He greeted them with flowery language (most of which Kiko understood) and argued at length for something so abhorrent that Kiko thought she must have misunderstood. He wanted the Dusk Sages to reclaim their creations, to use them for mana in order to control the Kyo Tee Shee and then to return in power to the continent of their children. He called them 'Initiators' and 'Gods' and said that it was their responsibility to cleanse Karia of the Cheldrun who he called 'Malice'.

The Dusk Sages listened, tolerantly, over a long period as he explained the story of the Cheldrun, and pleaded with them. The Dusk Sages simply shook their heads, with tear filled eyes, but said nothing. He behaved petulantly, like a child who is used to getting his way. He shouted and cursed. He whimpered and cried. He accused them of negligence, of hating their own children, and denying their own responsibility. Kiko could see that his words were wounding them and she tried to intervene, to calm him down.

That is when he exploded. A storm of knives rushed from his coat impaling her and anyone who came close. He rose into the sky, glowing with purple light, and began hurling wave after wave of sharpened blades and incinerating energy upon the gathered Dusk Sages. Kiko shouted for them to flee, to fight back, to do anything, but they just stood there, weeping.

Resisters crawled up the mountainside and began attacking the gathered Sages from the outside, as the man continued to pulse with malevolent power and to rend the ones he had called Gods just moments before. From his hand he unleashed a purple crane, which swelled to enormous size and swooped down on the dying Dusk Sages, greedily dipping its beak in the rainbow fluid which washed in waves over the field. Kijuuki, Mokuzai's Kyo Tee-Shee. As Kiko watched, the crane consumed every Sage there, becoming bloated with mana. The crane gave a piercing shriek which caused the Flame of Dawning to split in half and fall, before returning to its meal.

The resisters were just as voracious, and most horrifying of all, as they ran out of Dusk Sages to consume they fell on one another in their frenzied state. They wrenched masks off of one another's faces, and sucked mana out of one another's eye sockets. The red-eyed man did not cease his slaughter either, but turned his fury on the resisters as well. Rays of purple light from his hands incinerated his targets, and as Kijuuki fed he only grew more powerful, until his blasts were breaking apart trees, then boulders, then mountains, then sundering the island itself.

Kiko couldn't think of anything to do then, but to sing. She looked around, but Maruko and Ramora were lying in heaps, dead. So she let her trembling voice ring out with the Song of Sending, the funeral song of the Prill. It was perhaps the worst rendition of the song ever performed, but The-One-Who-Opens-Doors smiled and nodded at her as he died. The look on his face was one of pride.

From the corpses of the resisters new Kyo Tee-Shee sprang. They joined the feeding frenzy, as the ground trembled and Kiko, who was on the point of passing out but kept singing all the same, wondered if the island were lifting out of the ocean into the sky. She could not hear herself over the roar, but she pressed on approaching the climax. The red-eyed man was completely obscured in a field of purple light now. She no longer cared who he was, it was beyond her.

When her breath was expended, she fell back and looked at that dictionary laying on the ground beside her. Its pages were spattered with rainbow colored blood. The wind took it and blew it out of sight. She imagined the wind was blowing it like a message to the All. We are unraveling as you decreed. Is it what you you hoped?

Episode 37: Oni Unleashed

2008-05-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Time... reversed. That is the only way to describe it. One moment I am dodging out of the room as a giant explosion rocks it and watching in horror as the shrapnel rips Una apart and the flames incinerate Rei and the next... everything stops, then reverses. The next thing I know we are standing in front of the First Mind again and he is saying something about not having to track us down. We all seem stunned except High Dive. Somehow she is behind this, but... how? Rei decides not to wait around for a repeat performance and teleports us away. For a moment I am tempted to remain behind to cover their retreat but I realize that there is always the chance that it would simply ignore me and go after the others anyway so I allow myself to be taken away with the rest.

We arrive in the middle of a battlefield. Gogajin are striding about like invincible titans smashing tanks, soldiers, and Hei Shi alike. It is a slaughter and for once our side has the advantage. Then, predictably, the First Mind catches up with us. Una was waiting for it however and it is immediately greeted by a giant blast of destructive energy that sends it flying back into the building from whence it came. That was not enough to finish it of course and a hard fight ensued. Rei finished things off by doing her eclipse-causing super telekinesis thing again, this time combining both the building smashing and the waves of fire. It was true catastrophe; for the other side of course. The First Mind was defeated (though strangely we heard no announcement of a new Oni at its death) and the Goshi army as far as we could see was destroyed.

No sooner had the smoke cleared than we received reports that the Enemy had routed our forces in Starbreeze Canyon with the help of a giant Oni. That the enemy dead were raising as Eyeless and overrunning the front lines. And that the forces advancing from the former location were threatening to cut off the retreat of the latter. No rest for the wicked it seems; we called the Sennin in and hastily made our way to Starbreeze Canyon to give our main forces enough time to retreat from the relentless onslaught. Balder chose to remain behind with his fellow Gogajin, something for which I cannot blame him.

It was fully night by the time we reached the canyon and there before us was the most massive Oni we had encountered yet. It was easily three hundred meters long, two hundred meters tall, and one hundred meters wide. It strode through and over the canyon on six giant segmented legs with two enormous pincers before it. Goshi troops swarmed before, under, and behind it and both they and the very face of Karia showed signs of the proximity: festering boils and cancerous growths seemed to bloom up from the ground where the Oni stepped and magically, sickeningly, grow from the bodies of the nearby soldiers. We knew what we had to do: we swooped down to introduce ourselves.

When we got close we heard the characteristic partially-internal voice of an Oni. It boomed, "I am Kyansu Oni the One Who Corrupts." Oh. Fun. I also noticed the feeling of absolute wrongness as we approached and activated one of my Katas that protects my purity of body. A good thing too because I then saw everyone else start to grow the horrific tumors and boils that were affecting the troops below.

I shouted at Moses that I was the only one who could approach it safely so I should be dropped onto its back alone while the rest of them dealt with saving the last remnants of our forces fleeing before the vile horde. He ignored me of course. Logic does not count for much when it means leaving your friends in danger; I would have done the same. Thankfully Una activated a Kata that healed the corruption as fast as it spread. Barely.

The crew was scared so I yelled a bit and whipped them into shape. I may not be a soldier but I know a good deal about getting reluctant underlings to do their job. I commanded them to drop us off on the back of the beast and get out of its range. That they did and we dropped one by one onto the massive bulk. Just before we jumped I told Moses "Dig me a way to its heart." I am not sure if he heard me or not but when he landed he actually punched through its hide and ichor started spurting out. So I aimed for that area and when I landed I unleashed all of my hatred and revulsion for the Enemy into it. I guess I overdid it somewhat because the next thing I knew I was coming out the other side with nothing but air between me and a horde of Goshi soldiers a hundred meters below. Thankfully Keibatsu had drank deeply and I was easily able to survive the fall.

The Oni was slain and now all we had to deal with was a couple million Goshi soldiers. Things were frantic for a short time and then Rei cut off part of the battlefield by lacing one of her walls of fiery death across the width of the canyon. It was almost comical watching the soldiers pushed through by their comrades behind to heap up in front of the thing. We quickly dispatched the rest of the soldiers on our side and met up with our own troops. They were being commanded by Matthew, the giant Mechified we had met back in the Griolsa village. All of them were heavily wounded, exhausted, dispirited. And who could blame them? Rei tried her own strange version of cheering them up and I promptly took over before she said something that had them committing suicide. Then Moses decided he had not had enough and he showed us what a giant Mechified really looks like. Striding forth he casually walked through Rei's wall that had caused the deaths of so many Goshi soldiers and we heard the sounds of death and destruction from the other side. After a few minutes he came back and shrank back to his normal, albeit still rather large, size. The wall flickered and went away. And as far as the eye could see down Starbreeze Canyon there were dead Goshi soldiers and smashed tanks. It was about this time that things went bad.

The Goshi dead started to rise, their eyeballs bursting in the sockets. And we heard voices and saw towering forms rise up above them a few hundred yards away. "I am Suraisu Oni the One Who Tears" and "I am Rensu Oni the One Who Binds". Hurriedly I told Matthew to get his men and flee as far and as fast as they could. They needed little encouragement. As the Eyeless horde rushed us Moses encompassed us in another of his impenetrable domes. I looked around at the state of my companions. Moses was hurt a little, High Dive seemed tired, Rei was fine as far as I could tell, and Una was unconscious, probably from over-exertion as I saw no visible wounds on her. I told Moses to call the Sennin back and use it to get everyone out of here. I told him that I would hold back the Eyeless so that our troops had the chance to get away. I could do it. Keibatsu hungered.

He partially listened to me. He lowered the dome when we heard Aimi chime in that she was hovering over us and High Dive snatched up Una and hopped aboard. Moses said he was staying with me and so did Rei. I told her that if she was going to stay I needed her to deal with the Eyeless who had passed us by when we were holed up, the ones who were even now running down our fleeing men. She nodded and started after them. I did not have time to muse over the fact that I had just sent a teenage girl alone after a few hundred Eyeless. Instead I rushed forward as fast as I could, calling on the power of my Kata and Keibatsu to clear the way. Hundreds of Eyeless fell like grain before the scythe and in moments we had reached the pair of Oni. I immediately launched an all-out attack upon Rensu Oni and Moses tackled Suraisu Oni.

The fighting was fast and hectic. I am not entirely sure what happened, but suddenly my arm, along with Keibatsu, simply was no longer there. My mouth opened in a silent scream of horror as I fell to my knees in shock, blood pumping unabated from my shoulder. "So easily unmanned?" the Oni mocked me. "We are coming for you. Tomorrow we will bombard you and wipe your pitiful race from the face of the planet." Before it could finish me off High Dive appeared and attacked viciously. I grabbed a nearby discarded rifle and fired wildly at the thing, missing completely. Then High Dive cried out. Her legs had been removed at the knees. Dropping the useless gun I stepped over her, guarding her tiny, whimpering form with my own as best I could. And I did the only thing I could think of: I reached my remaining arm out and I fell as deeply into the Void as I could. I concentrated. I meditated on Keibatsu and our oneness. Wherever the Oni had sent it I called it back to me. Nothing happened.

I distantly heard a scream and a raptor's cry then I felt myself being lifted by a grip around my waist. It did not last long and I vaguely noted Una crashing to the ground missing a wing. She and High Dive lay bleeding in a heap. I glanced over to see Rei laying on the ground a ways away convulsing uncontrollably. A landslide on the side of the canyon marked where Moses and Suraisu Oni were presumably now buried. Rensu Oni laughed. "And so it ends." I knew that I was our last hope. It was my duty to save us, all of us. And Keibatsu came. Silver light and runes raced up my left arm as the blade that was part of me sprang forth once more. The Oni seemed mildly surprised and said "That will not help you." Then I attacked. With everything I had, my most powerful forms with no thought, only one purpose: cut. Do not give the enemy a chance to breathe, to think: cut. Do not hesitate, do not allow weakness to creep in: cut. Cut them down utterly, cut where they are weakest, cut finally, and decisively, and without mercy. I owed it to the rest of them. Cut.

The howls of rage faded as Rensu Oni disappeared. I breathed. "Wanna bet?"

* * *

We recovered the next day as best we could. The front lines had all been overrun. The refugee camps were being shelled by Goshi artillery. Eyeless were everywhere and the Oni made regular forays, presumably to lure us out. We had all survived though, if barely. Una had been able to restore our missing limbs with her miraculous healing. Jin Kalys still insisted that a greater sacrifice was needed and several ideas were put forth. Moses had the Surgeon cut out what he called the Machine God: a First Mind artifact that had been fused to his body all this time, that had given him much of his power it seemed. They cut it out and Jin Kalys studied it to see if it would be a proper sacrifice. Moses looked somehow... diminished... without it.

I could see that we were losing. We needed something, something big, some master stroke or this war would end with our inevitable defeat. It was just like a game of Go. Our opponents had us where they wanted us and were simply going through the motions until they finished us. Who knew when the bombardment would begin? We needed a gambit. Something on which we could stake everything; our last chance. If Jin Kalys' calculations could not do it then I had an idea: attack the Wandering Star. Foolish, yes, but maybe our last hope.

Then the radio blared. The Oni were attacking the last lines of defense. All of them. We left to face our salvation or our doom.

Banishing Shadows

2008-04-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Life is fundamentally about incongruity. That is what distinguishes the living from the non-living: unpredictability, mutation, humor. Ugliness and madness are virtues to be extolled for exemplifying that which is most alive, the true nonconformist. True noncomformists inspire discomfort through their asymmetry discharged in laughter. Laughter is the quintessential expression of the path of wisdom. Especially loud, lengthy laughter at inappropriate times.

Followers of the great sage Wastoraskalix, students of the School of the Wisdom of Untimely Humor, erroneously called Laughers by other Anakarix, are widely ridiculed - just as they intend. Not only ridiculed, but also shunned, because the Laughers tend to do what is least expected. They are unpredictable, rude, downright offensive even, and they laugh in the faces of those who get flustered by their antics.

Which is precisely what was happening to Shadowfang.

Starting even before the battle with Goshi something had been making the refugees and soldiers uneasy. Nightmares were increasing in frequency. People sleeping in their tents awoke in the dark screaming, and the SDF continued receiving reports of missing individuals. The idea of looking for a lone missing person in a crowd of 100 million on the eve of the most important battle ever fought was ludicrous. It didn't end with missing persons, though. The nightmares grew worse.

On the first night of the fight the soldiers wept and prayed to the First Minds because every time they closed their eyes they were haunted by visions of their own death. For some that death came on the battlefield, but others never made it through the night. Bodies were found eviscerated in bunkers, spread over 20 meters of tunnel, and bleeding out under their blankets. Some died of lacerations, others from high-powered bullets, others were crushed. There were no patterns except that no one described the killer the same way. Rumors began to spread that the camps had been infiltrated by dozens or hundreds of Goshi assassins.

The panic was the worst part. Among the refugees intense distrust and even violence flared up. The stress of the war compounded by the fear of shadows made people go mad. With every soldier tied up on the front lines, all anyone could do was pray that riots did not break out.

Disdaining participation in the conflict with Goshi, and offering only hearty chuckles for explanations, the Laughers followed the stories of Shadowfang with interest. Through means no one had time to understand the Laughers tracked this silent disturber of the peace. They tracked him, and they pulled his tail.

Up in the forested mountains around Stardown just before dawn, while the whole world flamed furiously with war, a merry game was being played. The Laughers danced, acrobatically around the most imposing Jevumm ever seen, tugging and tweaking his tails, his whiskers, his ears. A flurry of claws and a terrifying roar followed each such taunt. With terrible elegance the cat sliced through lizard scales spraying blood into the air, but the Laughers only giggled louder each time. The wounded party would scamper up a tree out of reach as others took his place. Perched in the branches of the tree his wounds would begin to close of their own accord.

There are nearly 300 students in the School of the Wisdom of Untimely Humor. Every single one of them pinched and prodded and ridiculed Shadowfang mercilessly throughout the night driving him farther and farther into a berserk fury. The roaring of the tiger was drowned out by incessant, maddening, crazy-making laughter. And as Shadowfang grew wearier, the sun was rising and the Laughers were only beginning to wake up.

That is when Boristakan, the Ridiculer, twice ranked Philosopher Degenerate, winner of forty-three debates, the first disciple of Samaranthine the Grotesque, and master of the esoteric art of Qibui dropped into the clearing. Shadowfang wheeled, and recognizing him as the leader hunched in preparation for a leap. Boristakan clacked his lizard tongue against the roof of his mouth in a mocking noise and bobbed his head like a bird. In one breath the Jevumm crossed the intervening space, flying through the air, but Kufu's howl of rage became a whimper of despair.

In Boristakan's hands purple flames sprung to life, doing a merry dance that was reflected in his eyes. Too late to change his direction, Kufu bowled into the chortling Anakarix, feeling indescribable pain as the fire singed his face and neck. Then the whole School was upon him, fists alight with fire, scourging the fur from his body. He twisted and heaved. With Gogajin strength he threw his assailants aside. With Biomade dexterity he sprung through gaps and tried to escape. With Zipsum speed he burst free of that throng and fled squealing across the horizon with his tail on fire.

The members of the School of the Wisdom of Untimely Humor collected themselves. They climbed to the tops of the trees to heal their wounds and greet the rising sun. And they laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Falling

2008-04-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm falling. Falling towards the massive Oni. The stench is everywhere, and I can feel my flesh writhing beneath its influence. Una's power fights its influence, but only just.

It's different this time.

Black tentacles pulse from the bodies of a hundred twisted, bloated, cancerous Goshi soldiers, drawing... something out of them. I devour their minds. Their psychic potential gutters out like a candle in a hurricane, and my mind expands. Power rushes through me, and the hunger that's been my companion ever since I first used this power is sated. For the moment.

It feels different. Channels of power. Before, I'd had all this power in me but no way to use it. Now...

My mind expands. First Minds, but it expands. The walls come down, and I can feel them all. So many minds. So very many minds. This Goshi soldier, that Goshi soldier, Ichirou, Kiyoshi, Moses, the half-Cheldrun child within Zippora, Aimi, this refugee, that refugee, Biomades, Allskins, Mechified, on and on and on, a flood of sensation both familiar and utterly alien that defies description.

I lose myself in the flood. I is no longer a relevant term. Over a thousand minds are united in this body, and for one glorious moment, I am.

... I come back to awareness. I'm not sure how much time has passed, but I know that I am Rei, and the sense of individual identity seems like a loss. They're still there, the minds of a thousand others, but I'm filtering the sensations more... efficiently.

I'm still falling. The entire experience took but a few seconds.

The Oni is dead. Cut down by Kiyoshi, Una, Moses, and High Dive. It's exploded into slime, and raining down on the battlefield. We're two hundred meters up.

Kiyoshi is falling.
Moses is falling.

Normally, I'd reach for Kiyoshi, but it feels different this time.
I feel... powerful.

I reach out with my mind, and Moses, weighing half a ton as he does, floats to the ground as gently as a feather.

I put him on the foremost tank in the column.

Shuddering and filled with power, I descend. And below me, Kiyoshi, Una, and High Dive slice their way through an entire Goshi division like the gods they are.

Starbreeze Canyon

2008-04-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Bullets rained from the sky without ceasing.

A more reflective person might have marveled that there was enough lead in the world to make that much ammunition, but it never occurred to Matthew. Matthew was too busy keeping his soldiers alive to ask abstract questions. Ducking from bunker to bunker he cheered the troops in person. He showed green recruits how to aim their rifles. He helped technicians fix a machine gun that was jammed. He made promises he had no idea how to keep, like - "we'll get out of this alive!" and "just a few more hours and they'll back off." No one believed him for a minute, not even himself, but it still felt like he had to say it.

He'd been given charge of the smallest force of soldiers. Small. Heh. Just over half a million infantry and a dozen pieces of artillery were assigned to the defense of Starbreeze Canyon. Even though he tried, he couldn't possibly cheer on that many soldiers face to face. So he used his radio. Frequently news reached him too late for anything to be done about it. His inexperience in military engagements showed through at times. He regretted accepting the commission, but no one else had stepped forward and General Daitokuji seemed to trust him. Embarrassingly, his soldiers seemed to trust him too. Perhaps they knew how unfit he was for leadership, but given the circumstances...

Our only choice is trust in times like these.

His only victory had been when the eyeless Zipsum started sabotaging the artillery. He saw one speeding by. He saw its bloody eye sockets. It's just like Ben Hamor, he thought. He remembered that battle. He remembered being inspired by Moses then. More importantly he realized what they were and the kind of threat they posed. So he unhesitatingly had everyone direct their fire at the Zipsum until they stopped coming. "Even when they fall down, keep shooting until they are bloody smears, or they'll get back up." When reports came through that both General Sousauryuko's artillery and General Daitokuji's artillery had been decimated by the Zipsum attacks there were plenty of congratulations heaped on his shoulders, but it was short lived.

Goshi's army came by the millions. 120 divisions, he was told fell on his position. It hardly mattered what the number was. It was effectively infinite. The artillery fired every shell they had to fire and when nothing was left they started firing shrapnel and stones. The bunkers collapsed under armored onslaught like so much cardboard. The soldiers Matthew had been rallying that morning were dead by evening. Still the enemy pressed on.

Matthew rallied the survivors around his command center in the rearmost bunkers on this front. They fought hard, Karia bless them. His own arm gave out mechanical squeals of protest from constantly throwing grenades. They fought like the fate of the world depended on them, even while Matthew desperately hoped it did not.

Tanks were soon rolling over their position, the 53rd Armored Division "The Steel Pigs". Climbing out of foxholes demolition specialists got under the tanks and attached charges. It was a sight of rare beauty to watch a tank liftoff like a hippopotamus trying to catch the moon. But there would never be enough charges to take care of all the tanks. A nearby whistle and a thunderous crack told Matthew that another bunker had collapsed, likely killing all the soldiers inside.

Night falling was a welcome advantage for the defenders. Though the fighting never ceased, it nevertheless became harder for the foe to pick out targets. Matthew had his teams clearing rubble filled tunnels and putting them to good use, changing positions to confuse the enemy, desperately striving to hold their toenails on that last inch of ground, to keep Goshi out of the canyon. That was the mission. Keep them out. As long as possible. If Goshi got into Starbreeze Canyon they could cut off the retreat of the main Stardown Defense Force. It would mean a rout and that would mean artillery bombarding the refugees sooner rather than later.

A division of infantry charged his position. Many of them were cut down by the machine guns, but soon enough they were forcing their way into the bunker. Muzzle flashes illumined the fight like thousands of strobe lights. Matthew buried his fist in an armored rib cage, blades twisting out of spring loaded compartments in his forearm. He didn't watch his opponent die, he moved to the next. He felt a sting in his neck as a bullet grazed him. The head of a man he'd met this morning exploded in gore behind him. That man had children in the refugee camps.

Who can say how long he waged that fight? It seemed as if they would never cease pouring into the bunkers. Matthew lost the use of his left arm from some explosion, but he was killing well enough with only the right. Everywhere he turned there were more of them, and every time he turned there were fewer of his own men fighting with him. In the smoke and blood he began to wonder if he was killing the same men over and over, so indistinguishable were they. A tracer round flashed past his nostrils just as he crushed the throat of another invader and in the light he saw the man for what he was. An Eyeless. Around him the dead were standing up and rejoining the fight.

Finally a voice called him out of his shock. "Retreat!" it said, "We must retreat commander, to the Canyon..."

Matthew knew he was right. He scrambled for the radio, drilling an Eyeless in his way. He screamed the retreat into the receiver like a frightened child and followed his men out of the bunker into the night.

Flares were being launched into the air to light up the sky so the artillery could continue their bombardment. The battlefield was a sea of writhing dead, and from their grasp a handful a terrified and wounded veterans sprinted toward the canyon. Matthew watched his troops, this bedragled and shit-scared group of survivors flee carelessly ahead of him. He watched in sorrow and empathy as they wailed and pissed themselves, firing blindly behind them to discourage pursuit. Then he watched with awe and pride as they came to their senses and remembered to follow a path that would avoid the mines they had placed. He called after them encouragingly, not sure where he found the strength inside himself, as they formed up in ranks at the canyon entrance. They remembered their duty. They remembered what was at stake, and Matthew remembered too. They must try, somehow, to find the strength...

As Matthew screamed these words of courage to the troops and allowed the fragile spark of hope to glow in his chest he was interrupted by the looks of shock on their faces. They pointed back to the battlefield, and he turned to look.

In the center of the field something enormous had risen. Rough hewn, like it had wrenched itself out of the stony ground, it easily spanned two hundred meters and stretched half that height toward the stars. It walked on six armored legs and swept the earth before it with enormous pincers. Where it went the ground trembled and all life was corrupted and died. Tumors spread along the surface of Karia herself and the spark of hope was extinguished.

Weeping, Matthew sent word to General Daitokuji that Starbreeze Canyon was lost.

Elder Moon Goes To War

2008-04-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

The dome of the Grand Chantry Council Chambers glistened in the sunlight. Within, the council deliberated Elder Moon's proposal.

"Her plan would constitute a violation of our oath to defend the forests! How can we protect this old growth if we are decimated by a foolish quest?" Elder Suburi of the Choir of the Flora spewed his words with vehemence.

"I assiduously disagree, with Elder Suburi," the voice of Elder Mandrake of the Choir of the Earth came from the opposite side of the chamber. "Defending the forests by his definition means endlessly tending this garden and avoiding any conflict. I say Elder Moon has finally hit upon the right idea here. The Cheldrun are a grave threat to the survival of all Karians. If there is a war to be fought against them, I say we fight!"

Elder Jethro registered his agreement, "My daughter is very likely in the midst of that war, I cannot abide those who would tell me to sit back and do nothing."

Elders Haku and Mora of the Choirs of Fire and Fauna respectively snorted in disgust. "You call the work of our people, the labor of uncovering the lore of the Dusk Sages, the sacred duty of our guardians, our oath to the forests and everything that has mattered to every Prill for the past two centuries nothing?! You have contracted the same madness as Elder Moon here," they gestured to Moon who had remained kneeling in the center of the chamber, head bowed this entire time.

Before she could respond Elder Suburi was upon her chastising her with harsh language that raised her hackles. "It is indeed a madness that has afflicted our sister Moon. Everyone witnessed her decline, and her irrational behavior at the death of Mokuzai. Flaunting our customs, after many weeks since Mokuzai was reunited with the forest, she continues to wear her mourning gown and to ignore her responsibilities as an Elder. Were it not for the respect she is owed for her years of service, the Choir of the Sky would long ago have stripped her of her tails and sent her into retirement. She is past all usefulness as a leader, and now she comes in here with this proposal that would destroy our peace..."

Elder Moon gave Elder Suburi a look that caused him to stop short, sputtering and unable to speak. Slowly she rose to her feet, and in a voice like gravel she said, "There is no peace." Her words echoed around the chamber, and no one dared break the silence that followed.

Elder Moon looked around at her peers, eyes brimming with tears, and began to sing. It was a song all of them knew. A song about young lovers. A song written by a great Prill composer so many centuries ago that he was more myth than history. A song which every Prill agreed defined them, and defined love. A true song.

In the song a pair of fosterlings fall in love. They love each other with such a passion that even when they are subsequently fostered out to separate choirs they cannot think of anything else. They sing for one another across the distance, a sad song of loneliness. The two grow up and though their love for one another never wanes they discover different talents in themselves. They end up committing to separate choirs. The young man is gifted with a talent for Dusk Sage lore and he commits himself to uncovering a secret never imagined by any choir. Unfortunately an envious rival kills him before he ever finds what he was seeking. The young woman, stricken by her loss defies the conventions of her people. She abandons her choir and journeys to the place where the young man lived. While the guardians of tradition try to prevent her she takes up his work. Both choirs, offended by her disregard for custom, trap her in her den without food. Ignoring her hunger she works day and night on the lore her lover left behind and just before she starves to death, she succeeds. She comes out of the den and confronts her opponents. She has composed a new song. As she dies she sings it to them. It is the song of love.

Silence reigned for several minutes after Elder Moon finished singing.

Then, tears streaming down her face, she said, "Mokuzai never solved the Riddle of Peace. I mean to finish his work for him."

Elder Suburi, his face flushed, fell to his knees, "And we will follow you until you have."

Episode 36: The Foe from Beyond the Stars

2008-04-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I feel...fire...can see light flashing through my closed eyelids...green...green...green green green greengreengreen... ...and this is what I remember, before it all goes backwards.

The day is bright and clear, and we can all see the Varan getting larger and larger, trailing smoke and flames that blot out the sun, a huge burning hulk falling out of the sky. People shout that Una is falling too. Kiyoshi runs forward to help people out of the forward bunker. I run after him when I get my feet moving again - they're rooted there while I gape up at the Varan like an idiot. Its like a moon crash-landing on a city. It boggles the mind, is bigger than words. As it falls, it pushes air out of the way and there is a sound like a tornado coming closer.

Then it lands. Before I can even think about it, a steel dome erupts out of my back, extending up and around Kiyoshi and me. The sounds of the crash, and a wave of heat, crash around us, and then we're inside a vast steel bell, ringing and ringing as tons of burning slag hit it...and then the heat bombs start going off...

I realize that we'll have to dig out, or else we'll be buried under the burning wreckage of an airship the size of a few city blocks. I hope...I hope Una is alive.

Kiyoshi and I don't talk about it.

We hear the sounds of artillery above us, and then the rumbling of tanks from a distance, shaking the walls of the tunnel I'm digging to get us out. I hope I'm going the right way. If not...we'll come up in the middle of what sounds like a tromping mob of Goshi soldiers. Not talking about Una makes me think about her. I can't believe she brought down an airship. Well, no, I can, now that I think of it. And now we have the only airship that we know of. Vorax 1, Varan 0. Game point.

I dig up carefully, listening, having Kiyoshi listen because I miss a lot of things. Then we come up and look - we can see the edge of an army that covers everything to the horizon. In the other direction, we see our own bunkers. We make a break for it.

Everyone thought we were dead - and we will be unless we do something about those soldiers.

As they come in, I block off a passage with some soldiers behind me. We've set up some barriers to hide behind, but I'm bulletproof, and all they brought to this fight were bullets. That was a bad move.

Things turn against us until Rei...I panic for a second, thinking that she's going to become an Oni, that someone's killed her. I am Rei-Oni, the One Who Listens to My Kyo-Tee-Shee Too Damn Much. But no. The tentacles are hundreds of meters of fire, and she incinerates (a new word I learned) the entire forward force of Goshi's soldiers, leaving behind glass - how did the glass get there? Oh, right, the heat - and piles of ashes.

Goshi stops the push. Maybe they're starting to re-think things.

Una and Rei end up in the infirmary again. I wish Zipporah would rest, but I know that's not going to happen. Una mentions having been shot by tanks twice so far today. It's the kind of thing we don't blink at much, but others in the infirmary just stare. Its still weird to be stared at like that.

As the second surge is coming, it comes through the lines, there are Zipsum attacking our artillery. I can't believe it. They are still going to try to kill us. And HighDive...I dunno. We're arguing, and then the bombardment of our bunker starts.

I'm wiping grime off myself and getting ready to fight again when a young Mechified says something over the din of artillery as he passes us with a crate of fresh rounds. About how it's good that there are people like us, that it gives him hope. He looks familiar, but we've all got so much more to think about...

Shortly afterwards there's a bang, and a crate bounces past us trailing smoke. Cog! Cog? Could it have been?...Rei summons a wall of burning darkness, and the army halts in front of it. They try to march through and soon realize that they just burn when they do, so some try to go around. We just shower them with bullets through the barrier, and focus our defense on the flanks. They pile up and get confused, the march stopping at the front but it takes a long time to get orders all the way back. They're packed in, milling around, taking cover...and then the order comes to show Goshi my little surprise. Charges in the bunkers and tunnels beneath the burned glass that Goshi's lines are marching over just that moment go off, exploding and tearing through their soldiers and tanks with waves of glass and stone and dirt. Then we all come up, charging when the wall falls, and tear into them. Rei rips up the brains of the tank operators. The fight goes on, once its won. Goshi retreats again, but not far enough.

A Zipsum messenger comes to the command center. He reports - the High King of the Gogajin - Grim! - is charging the center of Goshi's army with a Gogajin army. He calls on all brave hearts to join the battle, and to meet him in the middle.

Finally, some sensible damn Karians.

I push. I feel it tipping. We need to go now. We have the Sennin. Una destroyed the Varan, the only thing keeping us grounded and pinned down. We need to go now! I call for command to pack the Sennin as full of tough bastards as they can. We pack into the ship. As we're getting ready, I see Zipporah restocking the supplies of the Sennin's infirmary...and my heart stops. I take a deep breath, walk into the infirmary, and close the door.

It's not for me, or for you, but for the one who's coming soon now. I know, I know you would. Yes, I'll see you soon...I lie. I guess she knows, but she doesn't say much more after that. What do you say, standing in an infirmary that still has blood stains from our friends, still smells like burned flesh; outside you can hear soldiers climbing aboard and joking to calm themselves down, getting quiet when Varissa joins them, purring in a scary way.

You say...goodbye for now.

Aimi flies us out to the center of the Goshi line - just outside the barrier-dome. We come in hot, skimming over the army, dodging bursts of deadly smoke and shrapnel. Una has another gift - she closes her eyes, and the entire army of the Gogajin begins shining. I also see, from the blue light, small, darting figures moving through the opposite side of the Goshi army - Zipsum! Ha! It worked! They bloody listened! It's a miracle that's on par with Rei destroying a whole town. Una, Sloan, HighDive, Varissa - the Karians all seem to be glowing, fierce, larger than life.

We have to jump out because we can't land. I want to make a good first impression, so I jump out a little early, try to time it right, and shatter the wall of one of the compounds, shaking it so that it splinters apart, killing whoever is inside, cracking the ground, collapsing tunnels beneath. I let the ground shake until the others start landing in a far courtyard. We are Heroes of Karia, and we are coming for you.

We take the courtyard easily. The Hei-Shi try to ambush us, but they're as useless as the bullets were. You're running out of ways to stop us. We go down, following Kiyoshi, to the control center for the whole army - there are four dead bodies - one of them is Rain. Yes, miss Executor, you were wrong the whole time, and now you'll never get the chance to be wrong again. Everything is cut up, and I think of Nero and his knives. Then the room starts coming apart, and we have to get out of there fast. We come up, and almost bump into someone who seems familiar for the second I have to think. He's dressed like a scientist, and has these eyes...he says:

"Ah, good, you're all here. That will save having to hunt you down."

Get in line, whoever you are.

Everything goes insane. I grab him, and I'm on fire, and burning him, but not enough. Una is shouting for me to get out of the way. Kiyoshi attacks, and slams us through wall after wall as he cuts into the Scientist. I can barely hold on. He unravels me, my Kata taking some of it, some of it I can shrug off, but not enough for another one. Kiyoshi attacks again. I squirm out of the way of the unraveling. Again. Then he catches me, and I feel myself coming apart like I'm an uncoiling spring. There's more shouting, then a huge explosion and a rush of wind escaping the chamber, which might be part of the dream I'm having...

I feel...fire...can see light flashing through my closed eyelids...green...green...green green green greengreengreen... ...and this is what I remember, before it all goes backwards...

Episode 35: The Legendary HighDive Bludgeon

2008-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

There's a bang like a hammer on a huge sheet of metal, rolling through the streets, throwing up dust and blowing out the gas lanterns set along the road like a racing strip - and she's gone. Seeing other people watch her, I realize that I'm just used to this sort of thing. And they don't even know about the smoked finger collection...or her iron pot. How long has she had that?

After a while, Susauryoku says that now she's either done it or is...dead. I don't think she's dead. Kyoshi walks off to find out, and so do I and some others. Its incredible how cold it is - cold as when I was outside the Seninn, blown out the hole in the Wandering Star. Kyoshi just goes in, though, and not long after he's got HighDive...and she looks dead. She's so small...and missing a hand - most of her forearm. I barely warm her up - she's frozen solid. I think of Mokuzai then push it away.

Una brings her back. I'm surprised by how scared I get when she might be dead. I feel like I talked her into going in there. It just...it all seemed to make sense. But if she's dead, then I was wrong, and maybe we're wrong about everything. Maybe we still are. But...

I don't know if she understands...but we're doing it. Bit by bit. Freedom. Balance. I don't know who Una has to forgive, or how Kyoshi needs to be just, and Rei still seems to be looking for a purpose...that isn't just being a tool of her Kyo-tee-shee that is.

The city holds a celebration for HighDive. She gorges on candy - how did she find any!? - and gives random speeches from the tops of buildings. She challenges all kinds of people to fights and races and high-dive competitions. She displays her set of fingers and demands Susauryoku's finger to add to the chain. Or maybe an ear. His choice, but she prefers the finger.

We rub her belly and the old man makes a hasty retreat.

The next few weeks go by real fast. The army is coming and its far more than any of us can count. And more refugees. The ones from Geneva Prime arrive, and they are still being fed by Karia. We dig tunnels and make preparations. I try to stay busy because a lot is going on - lots of hurrying around and meetings and looking at maps. I'm not even sure what we're looking at - moving colored shapes around and pointing.

I get to see Zipporah a lot. We go fishing some afternoons, but there aren't really any fish. She could sing some up, but that's not very fun. We also find some old buildings submerged in the huge lake up here. The buildings look different from the ones in Stardown - there is corroded metal and bits of glass in the mirk. Zip's a lot less interested in it than I am, so we leave it alone down there.

I tell people the army that's coming won't kill us all so that I can believe it.

When the first...the vanguard, they call it...gets here, there are already millions of them. We're told that they'll go for Crystal Fork to set up a command, and that we need to fight them there, make them pay, and then crush the town to rubble. Those are all things I've gotten good at doing, so I'm in - all of us are.

I've never fought tanks before. I just didn't know much about the military until these few weeks when suddenly they want me to help fight it ten to one. Its tough, but then suddenly Rei...does something. She's really frightening. She rises into the air and the sun is blotted out by some kind of huge shadow. And then the ground starts shaking and all of the buildings - all of them - tear themselves loose from their foundations. They just float there, as if they're waiting.

And then she tears the town apart. Before she's done, she crushes thousands, tens of thousands, of soldiers and tanks and rubble into a huge ball and hurls them past the horizon, crashing out toward Goshi's endless army.

She's found her purpose, maybe. I'm glad she's on our side. (I think she's on our side.)

We're interrupted to learn that Goshi is heat-bombing the refugees. I catch myself. I had started thinking that we were fighting an army, a bunch of normal, reasonable people. No. We are fighting monsters. We have always been fighting monsters, whether they are eyeless or they look like chief executives.

I used to think I could make them pay enough to convince them to stop. Now I know better. You don't send an army of 80 million halfway across the continent because its good for business.

Well then. We'll stop you the hard way - one at a time. Kyoshi goes off to chase the Varan away - they're not here to fight, just bomb helpless refugees.

At the same time, there is a mass offensive against the northeast pass, held by Susauryoku and a small force of the army we've patched together. Rei and I go there, and Una joins us. They're throwing up huge metal bridges over the river that we'd hoped would slow them down. No such luck. They swarm across, not even caring about the thousands who are being torn apart crossing the river. More just come to replace them.

How did they get talked into this? What do they think they're here for?

Then it is Una's turn - things are coming to a head, and I think we're all...changing. Becoming something more. She calls down an army of Tee-Shee from the mountains all around. They swarm down on the Goshi soldiers.

I remember the cavern of the "purple Vorax", the terrible visions there, the torture of the Tee-Shee, the collected agony of all life on Karia. I know what they're feeling. Then the order comes to cross the river and to strike now, to kill and rout them and chase them down. There are screams that you can hear even across the river. The tanks go wild and out of control. The battle becomes a slaughter.

I stop paying attention for a while. My face is warm and wet.

I wonder if the Cheldrun will ever have to feel what they've done to other Cheldrun?

There is a story I don't really understand about Zipporah sinking some boats, or their crew or something. Having to do with "nerve gas", whatever that is. When Rei says it, her eyes light up. She thinks I don't notice her looking at me but I do.

That night, the Zipsum come with "tidings of woe from the manyest of the Karians." Its...typical Zipsum. I think they breed so fast so that you can't exterminate them all at once, because everyone has to want to. Even Una. They're just unstoppable, like termites that are impossible to catch or hold still and are armed with poisoned knives and arrows. They are here to kill us, apparently.

After that we try to talk to them a couple times. Why do I keep forgetting and letting HighDive talk to people we don't want to fight? Only Una speaks Zipsum, I think, and maybe Rei, among us. Una tries because HighDive and Rei are hopeless at this kind of thing, and even Una comes back so upset she squaks and molts all over the place.

I get sort of desperate and angry. Just give them the damn fruit. They don't think with anything higher than their waistline anyway. Maybe that'll turn them on Goshi. I get flashbacks of the Riverswift tribe "trial" and I want to smash something.

Somewhere I get the impression that HighDive's tribe has been...wiped out? Or captured or something. She doesn't seem bothered.

I have no idea.

To top it off, the Laughing school of the Anakarix wander into our camp to help by not being helpful. Maybe the lizards and squirrels will fight each other, and save us fighting them off or being laughed at. That would be something to see. I hear the Anakarix can fight, but I don't think it'll happen at night either way.

Maybe they'll help Jin-Kalys with the math, I dunno.

Not long after, I get my chance to smash things. It shouldn't, but it feels good. Not so much after, but during...yeah. I see Hurricane, I see Katashi Blade, I see Rain on every one of their faces. I smash and smash and smash. Their bullets bounce off me. Their bayonets dull and snap off. A horrified look from Zip lets me know that I'm covered in dirt and gore.

One by one. If that's how we have to do it. One by one.

Episode 34: The Place Where Stars Fall

2008-04-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

It's not enough to want to change. It's not enough to regret the things gone by. Not really. Not after looking at the world through the mask of the Dusk Sage. There's never enough time for anything. Nothing ever seems to live out its real potential. Potential is invariably cut short. Snuffed out. Murdered.

By people like me.

As the Sennin lifts off from the clearing where Inari's grandmother once stood, with the tribute to the Vorax glowing down below us, it occurs to me for the first time just how alien the existence of a Dusk Sage must be. I look down at the mask in my hands. That's how it saw the universe. Every waking second, it could see what is, what was, what could be, what must not.

The sacrifice of the Vorax. An entire species put to the flame for one last chance to strike back at Malice. At the Cheldrun. Is there anything left of them within Karaku-Oni, I wonder? When we finally extinguish him, will we be destroying the last testament of the Vorax?

Revenge.

The potential existence of everything in the room with me is frighteningly short. The Sennin is not likely to last beyond another few months. Neither am I. I can't tell if that's what will be, what could be, or what is.

I take off the Dusk Sage mask and toss it lightly onto my bed.

Stardown. The place where stars fall. The person who named that place must have been a prophet.

We go.

----------------------

Stardown.

It stretches on for miles around the lake. Used to be a resort town, back before all this. Now it's a refugee camp.

Our arrival does not go unnoticed: there is a crowd there at the docks to meet us. Aimi is happy to be back in civilization. I'm not so sure. There's something about the Grand Chantry that's weirdly appealing, even for all that it lacks force and energy.

Here we are. Stardown.

Eventually, we're shown to a restaurant where we can get something to eat, and there's a humanoid lizard thing there. Una says that he's called an Anakarix. Ama-chan says that he'd have all sorts of tasty mana inside of him, and would I let her out for a second, please?

I think about it.

No. That's a bad idea.

I become lost in my thoughts for a time.

Stardown.

After dinner, we receive a tour. It's mostly dull, and as we walk, my thoughts wander again. It's easy to lose myself in a crowd like this. To become everyone around me. It's hard to concentrate with this many people, but I do. I find myself looking over the landscape with an eye for defensibility. That rise would make a serviceable firing position in a pinch. The buildings behind us would be good places to position snipers. That pass to the north would make...

The world dissolves into fractals.

Numbers. Lines. Points. Connections. Equations in the shape of Una smile at High Dive's antics. Equations in the shape of Kiyoshi look stern. Equations in the shape of Moses look horrified. I look upon my surroundings, and I see potential. Not how a Dusk Sage would see it, but how a strategist would see it. I see a line of dominoes rolling down towards us from the north, and another from above, intersecting with the northern line at multifaceted points.

I see a great hand reaching out of the sky.

I see millions of people calling my name. Calling Moses's name. Kiyoshi's. Una's. High Dive's.

Our victims.

I see all of Stardown drenched in the blood of Goshi soldiers, and I see millions dead at our feet.

I grin.

"Rei?" Una asks.

I look up.

I can't tell what she's thinking. She tells me that High Dive has agreed to... something. Something dangerous. Something about an inertial dampener in the center of the city? But when is anything High Dive does not dangerous?

We walk to the front of the street that leads to the main laboratory in Stardown, and as we walk, my grin doesn't fade, even as the conflicting horror at what I intend rises up in my heart to war with my delight.

Goshi is coming. I know what I have to do.

An Unfair Advantage

2008-04-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Arrow saw the flying hunk of concrete a second too late.

It smashed into him before he could disLocate, knocking him to the ground and crumbling into rubble over him. He spit blood and teeth into the dirt and disappeared.

He reappeared on the top of a Goshi barracks in order to get a better vantage point. It proved to be a bad move as the Sennin came rolling by at a steep arc, .50 caliber bullets ricocheting off her hull. The wind she displaced nearly blew him from the roof and white tendrils of dust popped up all around him where stray bullets and shrapnel hit the building. He rolled against a retaining wall for cover and tried to catch his breath.

Fuck. Fuck. Motherfuck. He cursed about the pain in his ribs, he cursed about several near scrapes. He cursed the obscene contradicting orders coming through the network.

"All units forward march," they said. Surely they didn't mean the Hei Shi, that would be idiotic.

"No, 10 divisions stay back to guard the camp. The rest forward march. Hei Shi engage the Gogajin force." That made no sense either. The Hei Shi are not trained for large scale military engagements. Ask them to assassinate some generals or something, but a vague "engage" order was asinine.

Nevertheless, Arrow knew better than to disobey an order. As long as he had a disLocator embedded in his spine Goshi command could send him wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. It wouldn't take long for them to realize that he was in the wrong place and then they'd bring him in for "discipline". So he clenched his fist and disLocated to the sky over the mob of Gogajin, picked a target and disLocated again.

He appeared on the Gogajin's back, psychic knife buried in the kidney. It mattered not. These fuckers were unstoppable. The Gogajin grabbed his arm, shattering the bones with her grip, and threw him like a wet rag under the hooves of another Gogajin in animal form, charging the machine gun emplacements. Arrow twisted so the hooves only dealt him a glancing blow, but they still knocked the wind right out of him.

Before he could move another brute was on top of him. He shoved his knife under the bastard's chin and blood came running out, but as fast as he drew life and energy out of his assailant it seemed to come right back. They were invincible, literally, invincible. All around him his fellow Hei Shi, and Goshi soldiers were having as little success as Arrow. The Gogajin grabbed his throat and crushed his windpipe before he disLocated again.

This time to the infirmary. Dizzy, stumbling and unable to breathe, he didn't even register his surroundings. Lights flashed. He heard shouts. He could tell the infirmary was busy, probably swamped with sudden injuries. His throat was bad, he knew. If he didn't get air soon...

He grabbed the nearest doctor, some girl in a white coat. She just fell over, arrows protruding from her back. Arrow sobbed, collapsing to his knees. Vision swimming he could feel the darkness reaching out to claim him.

A voice pulled him back from the abyss for a moment. A small voice. He turned to see a blood-drenched Zipsum standing in front of him. The Zipsum was not alone, they were all over the infirmary.

"I am Cuts-Through-Bone, and Karia has made me invincible!"

Arrow said nothing as the knives plunged through his skull.

Training an Army

2008-04-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

"Let's make one thing perfectly clear," I say, looking out over the assembled officers. There's at least a hundred of them in this group, waiting to for us to finish. Ichirou has already said his piece, and it's typical Allskin rhetoric about fighting and dying with honour.

He should know better.

"The job of this army is not to die for the people of Stardown. If any of you have thoughts of dying honourably in the defense of millions, you're going to forget it, and forget it immediately." They give me strange looks at that, but I'm not done. "Your job is not to die for Stardown. Your job, and the job of all your men is to make the enemy die for Goshi. We are going to kill every single one of those bastards. We are going to hit our enemy from every conceivable direction, make his life a living hell, harass him at every turn, and not grant him a single inch of ground before he's paid for it with the blood of thousands. Thousands of Goshi soldiers. You, and the men you'll lead are not allowed to die until you are ordered to do so. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" they shout. A good quarter of them have never led anything larger than a hunting party before, but NOW they're standing like soldiers.

Not that I would know anything about how to be a soldier. ... But I do know how to kill, and how to kill very effectively. Such gifts as I have, I share.

"I know that some of you are new to this. Well, we're going to show you how to lead a unit. Consider this your crash course in small unit tactics. You're either going to learn it and learn it well in the weeks before Goshi arrives, or you and your squad will all die. Your choice."

Silence. I have their full and undivided attention.

'Think of how much mana I could harvest from nine million deaths, Oneechan...' Amaterasu whispers.

I ignore her.

And so it begins. I won't be here for every session, but I do what I can. And Ichirou does what he can. All of those with some level of military experience do the same. And as the weeks pass, they will definitely improve. Not as much as I would like, but they will improve: the threat of impending death has a way of focusing the mind. At least a quarter of their planned training will happen when they're already in position on the forward defensive line: we can't actually afford to wait before deploying the army, but if we don't give them at least some training, they'll never be able to fight as a coordinated army.

As the assembled officers salute me, I almost giggle. How strange to be here, helping to command an army. I've always worked in the shadows before. A knife in the dark. A well placed blast of psychic energy removing a potential threat before it has time to fester. A scalpel, cutting cancerous growths out of society.

It all looks so very different from here.

Still, we've got our spies and assassins as well. If all goes well, they'll wreck havoc on Goshi before they arrive here. The goal of our army is to destroy theirs, but the goal of our assassinations and infiltrations is quite different: those operatives are to spread something far more powerful than guns or effective squad tactics; those operatives are to spread terror, and fear. To demoralize the enemy before he even reaches us.

... 128 field operatives.

It should be enough to make a decent showing. I have no illusions. Our chances are slim. But I aim to maximize them as much as possible. If I did anything less, I'd never be able to forgive myself.

I nod to Ichirou, and he to me, and the training begins.

Conversations with the Cold-Blooded

2008-04-18T01:47:00.000-07:00

"No. Absolutely not. If I were to accept such a postulate, it would undermine the very foundational principles of nine-branch-formal logic." The lizard looks irritated again. I have that effect on him, and there's something vaguely satisfying about it.

"It still works," I say. "You just have to expand the parameters. It loses some of its predictive ability, but I think it will create a much more accurate representation of..."

-----------------

It's dark, and I'm sitting around a table with a handful of Biomade. Operatives, all of them.
... Well, former operatives. The old networks are shot to hell these days, and hardly anyone knows anything, but we're as close to the heart of Stardown's military intelligence as anyone's going to get.

I wish there was someone else to do this sort of thing, but our list of candidates is a bit on the slim side. There's me, me, and ... me.

Three men, three women, and me.

"What do you have for me?" I ask.

Lightning - one of the women, pulls out a notepad. A notepad. Once, this would have been projected for all of us on a holo-screen, but now, notepads will have to do. "Unfortunately, most of our personnel have maintained their ties with Goshi, and many of those who have not remain loyal to the Oversight Council in Marina, which makes them Goshi's by default." I know all that, but I nod anyways. It's comfortingly silent in here: nobody in the room is foolish enough to allow their thoughts to leak. She goes on. "All told, we've located a hundred and twenty eight former operatives who are willing to participate in our new program.

A hundred and twenty eight. That's not great, but it's not bad, either. A hundred and twenty eight people in the right place at the right time might be all we need.

"You've explained what we expect of them?" A man off to my left asks.

Lightning nods. "They understand that they may not return alive."

And so it goes. A hundred and twenty eight operatives. 'Operative.' That's the civilized term for what we are.

Spies. Assassins. Thieves and murderers. I feel guilt again, but I quash it ruthlessly. I'm not going to feel guilty here. It's funny. The bulk of our work actually goes towards preventing assassination attempts on Moses, Kiyoshi, and Ichiro. I almost giggle at the thought that we've already stopped twelve such attempts before they managed to get off the ground. For a would-be world dominator, Goshi is surprisingly sloppy.

Well, no. That's not really true. That's what they want us to think. Wheels within wheels is the way of this world. Each enemy operative that we capture allows us a view into, not what Goshi is actually planning, but what Goshi wants us to believe that they are planning. Most of their assassins are fed deliberate misinformation for the event of their capture, though their handlers are careful enough to never let them know that, or even to suspect it. How much is bluff and how much isn't, well, that's the game.

"Rei, what about the Ikari report?" another of them asks.

My heart sinks. That happens a lot around these people. "Has it been confirmed?" I ask. If what's in that report is true, then a hell of a lot of innocent people are going to die. We could do something about it, but if we did, a hell of a lot more innocent people would die later.

Lightning nods. "It's been confirmed. ... Ikari has successfully broken the Executor code."

We all let out a breath that none of us had realized we were holding. ... suddenly, things are infinitely more complicated. We've already got three devices on the table designed to nullify the effects of microphones and transmitters in a localized area, and two more designed to block telepathic signals, but I add another one just to be on the safe side.

"So they're going to hit the tunnels," I murmur. "Sick bastards." It's an ingenious plan, really. Specifically designed to undermine morale and spread terror in our population: nerve gas canisters smuggled into the refugee tunnels by a team of Goshi operatives.

"We definitely shouldn't tell Moses," Lightning says. "He'll stop the operatives, and they'll know that we cracked the code, and there's no guarantee that we'll be able to crack whatever they come up with to replace it. Not in a short enough time to matter."

I feel sick to my stomach, but it doesn't show on my face. The others aren't quite as good at hiding their reactions. Still, I say what has to be said. "When this is over, I want Rain's head on a pike."

The others all nod their agreement.

I produce a folder marked 'Ikari,' and pull a handful of papers out of it.
The plans for Goshi's first major assault.

A million people are going to die to make an effective response possible.

Karia, but it had better be worth it...

-------------

Jin-Kalys's dewlap flares, and I try very hard not to grin. "A stochastic reading of the Nine Branches is altogether unnecessary. It already accounts for individual choice as a function of the polyvalent..."

He goes on, and I don't quite grasp the entirety of his argument, but I don't show him that. I understand him well enough to get the general sense of what he means. "If you'd accounted for individual choice, you would not be making predictions about the future," I say. "Every choice affects every other. Every action nudges the whole model towards a different outcome. Freedom, Jin-Kalys."

"I will not revise the nine-branches to cater to your personal desire for greater autonomy in the universe, Rei," Jin-Kalys says, and his gaze is oddly piercing. "I had thought that you of all people would take some comfort in knowing that there really are very view possible choices at this juncture, considering what you are about to allow to happen."

Shock. Surprise. Anger. Fear. "... I don't know what you mean," I say.

He looks at me, silently, unblinkingly.

I sink into myself. "... do you think Karia will forgive me?" I ask.

"No." His voice is full of a terrible sense of finality, and I feel that cold, creeping dread again.

'But you don't want to be forgiven, do you, Onee-chan?' Amaterasu whispers in my thoughts. 'You don't want to be forgiven at all. You want to pay for your sins. You want to earn your redemption. I'm right, aren't I? If you give me mana, I can show you how to do it...'

"... There's no other choice," I murmur.

He looks me directly in the eye, then, his unblinking lizard-eyes peering right into mine. "Do you believe that?" he asks.

...

When it Rains...

2008-04-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

Black smoke billowed into the sky. The Behemoths continued their slow and steady march south, cutting and burning through the jungle like glaciers sliding over hot metal. The ground was scorched and smooth behind them, while copper towers spewed ash and smoke skyward. The noise was obnoxious, so Arrow scanned the mind of the Mechified sergeant in front of him who was busily shouting incomprehensible words.

Something in the sky.

Yes, Arrow thought he might have seen it too in the midst of all the charcoal clouds. He sent the message buzzing over the psychic network to his superiors. Not my business, he thought.

The reports arrived on Rain's desk before they were sent. Two or three scouts reported an unidentified flying object at high altitude, and scans from the Varan revealed it had to be an airship. Only one other airship it could possibly be, so she didn't waste any time double-checking the scout's reports. Her lieutenants stood around anxiously expecting some kind of attack order.

"Don't be idiots," she told them. "How many times do you have to have your asses handed to you before you learn to change tactics. If they want to look, let them look. It won't change their fate any. I mean for this to happen on a battlefield where lives are at stake. Make them choose between protecting the rebels, or coming after us. We have nothing to gain by inflicting stupid casualties on ourselves at this point."

She could tell that her lieutenants disagreed, but were equally relieved not to be the one tasked with going after the Sennin. Let them disagree. They know that I'm the only one here with enough brains to get this thing done. There were times when Rain wished she had Katashi Blade's facility for making people give unquestioning obedience, but what she couldn't accomplish with force of personality, she managed by obsessive planning. Every man and woman in her chain of command owed Rain a debt, or feared her with good cause. So even if the obedience came with questions, it came all the same.

She ordered the Varan to follow the Sennin so she'd have an idea of what her enemy knew about her army, but it wasn't long before word was sent back that the Sennin had been lost.

"They have a good pilot," was the lame excuse.

Whatever. Knowledge wouldn't win them the war. Not by a long shot.

For example, she knew that at best she'd be facing a force of 10 million or so untrained and poorly equipped rebels. An enormous army by any standard, but at her disposal she had the combined forces of the former Yogensha League, every militia and conscripted force Goshi had been able to assemble during their months of political dominance, and a great many more divisions hastily recruited, but well armed. Dragging along behind her like some bloated centipede she had over 56 million infantry. In two separate columns coming from Thalosh and Galata she could rely on another 23 million. She had enough vehicles to make a necklace for the planet, including almost 1/2 a million tanks, and a silly amount of artillery besides. Still fighting for her, she counted 114 Mecha, among them the best pilots surviving from Washi San Academy.

Even she felt like this was overkill. As conservative as she could be, as much as she liked to rig the odds in her favor... it was unreasonable to imagine any result but a massacre. In fact, some part of her dimly held out hope that the rebels would see her army arrayed before them and realize the futility of their position. Kiyoshi and Moses at least claimed to be reasonable people, and Daitokuji Ichirou had an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. Surely, they would be willing to give their lives rather than inflict certain death on countless refugees. Only lunatics would push this thing to its ultimate conclusion.

The other part of Rain, with a bit of sadness, told her that she was indeed dealing with lunatics.

Which is why she was not even content relying on her obscenely large army. Her deal with the Shadowfang had gone rather well. So far they had fed him three members of the Biomade Oversight Council in return for his cooperation. It was an exorbitant price to pay for the somewhat dicey prospect that he would succeed, but Rain considered it a worthwhile investment, even with the risk, whenever she imagined the potential chaos he could cause.

And while Shadowfang was a risky investment, she was growing more and more satisfied with herself for taking Drives-Like-Oni up on his suggestion to capture the Many Kicks Tribe. While it had incited the rest of the Zipsum tribes against Goshi, they were more of an annoyance than a real concern and since their aggression wasn't very discriminating, it was likely to cause just as much of a problem to the Rebels as to her. No, the rewards of having these captives were going to be substantial, if fleeting... the oxymoron made her giggle inwardly.

Giggle. That's odd. Rain had never been one to indulge in laughter much, but then she had never been one to bleed from the tear ducts as she had been doing from time to time lately. She'd been careful to limit her exposure to White Rock, but she could read the signs, and they made her more convicted to finish this business post-haste.

Wiping the drop of crimson from her cheek she looked up in time to see her newest adviser entering the tent. Toshiyaki Onyx, was his name. A member of the Biomade Oversight council who agreed to serve her rather than remain a prisoner. He'd been the source of a number of brilliant suggestions, and he had Rain's gift for keeping people off-balance. There was something about his eyes that set people on edge, and Rain liked the discomfort she sensed in her lieutenants whenever Onyx was around. Still, there was something about him that she didn't trust.

"Have you been working with Whiterock again, Onyx?" she asked, tossing the soiled tissue in the trash. He nodded, and she went on, "make sure you're thoroughly cleansed before coming to see me next time. That stuff is poison. You should stay away from it yourself."

"Of course, executor. I've only come to tell you that our experiments with the Zipsum have been very promising. You should get the results you're after."

"Good. Now let me attend to the annoying supply chain issues." The dismissal in her voice was firm and he immediately departed. As Onyx left she remembered why she didn't trust him. Toshiyaki Onyx had been one of the Biomade Oversight Council members that she fed to Shadowfang. No sooner had she realized this than she promptly forgot it again.

And They Shall Come From East and West, North and South

2008-04-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

What started out as a trickle soon became a deluge. Refugees were arriving by the hundreds and thousands, and then suddenly by the hundreds of thousands. They came in bearing all their worldly possession on their backs, or dragging it behind them on sleds. A few were lucky enough to have wheeled vehicles that had somehow survived the rugged overland journey. They were tired and frightened, but miraculously healthy and well-fed. As they came, the bounty of Karia came with them. Every morning the ground itself would burst in an explosion of fruit and nutrition, which would be quickly gathered up by suddenly animated carts and wagons. No one knew how long the food would keep coming, but so long as it did...

The first refugees from Geneva Prime arrived 40 days after they set out. They came with songs of victory on their tongues. In high spirits, they rejoiced to find the Heroes of Karia Vitalus already here ahead of them, and shouted their confidence that the Stardown Defense Force would win the day against any odds. Among all the refugees the citizens of Geneva Prime were received like journalists straight from the scene of a disaster. Everyone questioned them about the details of the fall of Goshi Tower and the death of Katashi Blade. From the Epicenter of the catastrophe the people of Geneva Prime reported their version of the events, and for once the most outlandish versions of the tale were not far from the truth.

Most refugees came in through the northern passes and were counted as they came, then funneled into one of the major refugee camps built around Stardown. Some refugees began accumulating on the eastern shore of the Stardown Lake and it took days for all of the small boats in the city to serve as ferries, taking them across the crystalline waters into the increasingly crowded and smelly hills outside the city.

When the camps held 10 million refugees they were lively. When the camps held 20 million refugees they approached capacity. When the camps held 50 million they were overcrowded and the planners began to worry about disease, and sanitation became virtually impossible. But the refugees didn't stop coming until they numbered close to 100 million. They lived 3 families to a shack, or on tops of roofs, in caves and trees. They built rafts and lashed them together and lived on the lake. They went up into the mountains and lived above the tree line, or across the lake and crowded all around its shores. The caves built under the hills by order of the SDF generals were reserved for children and caretakers - the future of the Cheldrun if things went poorly. The valley of Stardown became one solid sea of people.

Throughout the exodus Ichirou and Sousauryuko adamantly maintained a final line of defense beyond which no refugee was allowed to cross. Trenches were dug and staked. Razor wire was laid, and mines as well. A killing field for Goshi's army if the SDF was forced to fall back that far. The battle would not begin here, though. The battle would begin at the other end of the pass, hopefully Goshi would give up long before it came to a final stand.

The refugees happily worked. All those who were able bodied had a task, whether it was building more shelters, digging latrines, attending to the sick, or training under the Silver Phoenix Clan generals. No one was idle. No one was allowed to be. Many also joined the SDF though Ichirou preferred to keep the fighting force efficient rather than overcrowded with untrained cannon fodder. Limited by the amount of armaments in their possession only so many soldiers were useful. That number came to approximately 9 million. The largest fighting force anyone among the refugees had ever heard of since the days of the galactic empire. And still many times smaller than the reports arriving of the Goshi Army.

Frustrated with relying on Zipsum reconnaissance Ichirou turned to the Heroes of Karia Vitalus and asked them to go and learn more for him. So they climbed into the Sennin and flew Northwest, toward black clouds on the horizon.

Faithful

2008-04-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

You brought me here.

Yes, you. I'm talking to you. Click at me all you want.

You brought me here, and you got me to bring everyone else where too. And now, for what?

All just some kind of trick, so we'd all be here to get, what, eaten? Burned? Killed all at once?

I'd be perfect for that, wouldn't I. Stupid. Yeah, I know. Easy to get me to do something. Just grab my nose and lead me around like I'm on rails.

Stupid.

I thought, if I could just do this, then it would be my part, and I could have some peace. I went all over the world, looking for how to make them free. I found the fire, and it - you! - spoke to me. Sent me back to Goshi, back to their new tower. I knew he wouldn't listen. I knew it! But I went up there anyway. And then...and then the Mecha, and then Julian and Trencher...but I - you! - brought down a hail of gems from the sky, from the damn sky, and metal-eating moths, and they - my people - are being fed in the wilderness while they travel by magic jungle plants, and...and all that, all that, for nothing? For a trick?

But peace got ground up by Suraisu-Oni, didn't he. Just like that, peace is dead. So no peace for me. No peace for anyone. Mokuzai gone and...and Jin says it doesn't add up anymore. We don't add up anymore.

And now Goshi is coming. They are coming for us. We've chosen our ground. You've chosen our ground. There are...there are more of them than I'd ever thought. More of us, but most of us aren't fighters at all.

So now everyone else makes plans, and I stay up talking to a clicking lump embedded in my shoulder. Deeper than that, now. Its me and I'm it.

You are...you are First Mind artifact. And the First Minds are the Enemy. So maybe you're the Enemy. Maybe you were made by a Resister, and maybe not. But I know I'm not the Enemy. And even if you were made by them, you're a tool. Maybe you've used me up to now, but I can use you too.

I can use you too. You're me now, you're part of me, and I'm part of you.

You brought me here, but I'll decide how this ends. How I end.

He closes his eyes, and grits his teeth together, begins to shake, hands clenching with the soft scrape of metal on metal, joints straining against themselves with a whine and the slow release of excess pressure through valves that save the powered joints from tearing themselves apart. Sudddenly he can see, and feel, the threads that the Machine God has woven through his body, how it has reached into his mind slowly, how it has made new connections, bound what was severed from before he was born, made him more whole. It has followed lines of...something he cannot quite see through his body, into every part. It is part of him and he is part of it. It is part of him but not all of him. Zipporah wakes up in alarm to a sudden stream of hammering clicks and the room filling with crackling heat radiating from Moses's shoulder. She calls up the water vapor in the air to rain on him, but it dances and evaporates immediately when it touches him. She watches in alarm as the clicking reaches a crescendo and then suddenly something slips, the sound changes, smooths, evens, quiets. Moses opens his eyes, but for a moment doesn't see her at all.

I. Decide.

Useful

2008-04-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

For a while I'm at the army meetings with Ichirou and Kyoshi and Rei. They seem to think I should be there, and its where the tent Zip and I are staying in is. But soon its pretty clear that I'm not really helping much. Rei is talking about digging chevrons in the ground to channel infantry and force-multipliers and bulwarks and I don't even know what. She's some kind of genius or something. Maybe its all the minds she ate.

So pretty soon I just wander around the city for a while. People sort of collect around me, and I talk to them, and they tell me about Stardown and ask about where we've been and what we've done. They ask about Zipporah, and we try to explain about Prill. I know there are some of them, maybe a lot, that think...that think we're unnatural. No one says anything where they think we can hear but...Zip has those big ears. They're nice, you know, but they are big. Foxy. I say I don't care but I do.

There are too many people here. Its too open. I get headaches every day sometime in the afternoon now, ever since Eris...well, ever since she blew my brains out of my head so they had to grow back. And that scar.

Its so crowded, so I get to thinking. I ask some surveyors about the area. What's the bedrock like? How deep is the soil? How deep is the lake? How is it fed? Seepage? That kind of thing. I talk to as many people as I can - Jin-Kalys, the lizard - er - Anakarix even follows us around. He talks about...I think its math, but I'm not sure...and talks to Zipporah a lot. He seems really happy to have another Karian around to talk to besides Sloan and the scary Jevumm we haven't really seen since...well, the incident with HighDive.

She sure does enjoy being a hero.

I'm sort of done with it, so when I get the chance, I start digging tunnels. Its tiring work because, to get them done faster, I call on my Kata to grow almost as large as I can when I put everything into it. This doesn't last, so I have to rest after, but while I'm like that I get a lot of work done. I burn through a good bit of Blackrock, but when all those people from Geneva Prime start arriving, we'll have all the Blackrock we'd ever want.

It takes a long time, but I find a lot of Mechified who are good at this kind of stuff to come and shore up the tunnels where they need to, to brace and to reinforce. They get into digging themselves - it turns out, there are loads of them with similar upgrades to what I've got. I dunno...thousands. They're not large enough for all these people, but its all we have time for. And when the heat bombs start falling, they're better than tents.

There's now a big network of tunnels, a few meters across, with some larger rooms cut out and air vents cut down to them and that kind of thing. Some drainage for, you know, waste and stuff like that. They're dry because I cut them into the hills, so they're above the lake and don't get any of the seepage from that. Some people are already living up there because there just aren't places to live that have anything like walls or a roof anymore. The city keeps bursting over and over again. Some arrive and have thought things through, but others...haven't.

A few of the Mechified said that there's enough room in those tunnels for maybe a million people. More if they're just crammed in there for shelter when the fighting starts.

A lot of refugees keep coming, and a lot of them won't be fighting even if they wanted to. I had hoped...well, I had hoped that things would be better, but they aren't, so you make do. I can do enough work, while I'm here and its a bit quiet, to make up for not having enough time to do things right.

And then, all of a sudden, everything goes straight to shit.

Guerrilla Tactics

2008-04-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Cuts-Through-Bone chewed Mazu leaf to help him hold still. Crouched under a fern he lay trying to take shallow breaths and not rustle the bush. The vanguard of the Goshi army was approaching and they must have no warning of the attack or it would fail. So he chewed and chewed and felt his limbs go tingly and relax.

Cuts-Through-Bone was of the Cloudclimber Tribe, but he was just as angry as the messenger from the Many Kicks Tribe had been, when he described what Goshi had done. The anger had been bubbling near the surface for a long time now for most Wild Zipsum. It was bound to explode, and explode it had.

There had never been such a massive or coordinated Zipsum offensive. Whole tribes had mobilized, disappeared into the jungle and reassembled as fighting units in the path of the Goshi army marching toward Stardown. Attacks were made daily on the supply train, on the scouting parties, on the vanguard itself. Out of the jungle thousands of Zipsum would materialize, poisoned blades on fists, and launch an assault that at most would last a minute or two. Afterward the jungle floor would be littered with corpses, vehicles would be sabotaged, and food supplies poisoned.

It gave Cuts-Through-Bone deep heart joy whenever a unit of Zipsum archers would launch volleys into the air, shift, run to a different location, and begin launching volleys anew from the opposite direction. Watching the Children of Steel run in panic from little shafts of wood made him laugh and laugh, and sometimes pee a little.

But he was no archer. He went in with the knives, flashing fast. They could not blink or hesitate because their bone and wood armor would disintegrate in one blow from a Mechified arm, or a stinging bullet. Sometimes his unit would rush into the fray and his knife would shatter on the first impact and he would run around screaming until his sense came back and he leapt up into the canopy. If the Cheldrun deployed blue-smoke he knew to run upwind or he would be dead. Many of his litter-mates were dead because they didn't run soon enough.

The noise and smell of the Cheldrun was unmistakable and could be detected for many kilometers. They marched in huge numbers. More than ever before. More than even the Zipsum, and the Zipsum are the manyiest of the Karians. They tried to avoid the Jungle, but too much Jungle was in the way to be avoided entirely. Instead, they rolled their machines over the wood. Huge metal behemoths belching black smoke and scaring the poor Jevumm hunters away. These machined left a charred trail of death across the jungle several kilometers wide, and through this channel the army marched.

There would be no question of the Zipsum defeating this army, though Cuts-Through-Bone boasted every time he went out that he killed the most powerful Cheldrun General during the fighting. Even in his agitated, drug-altered state, he knew that it was like attacking a mountain - fun for a while and you can graffiti your name with your knife, but nothing will come of it. Nevertheless, when you bury a knife in an unprotected thigh, or scratch the tip of your blade along a lily-white cheek and you know that it will swell up and ooze puss for days before they die... it is hard not to be very satisfied with yourself.

In a Gogajin War Camp

2008-04-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Up a steep slope covered in scree, a hundred meters above the camp of the united clans, Grim sat alone between a pair of enormous standing stones. The stones were new. Monoliths erected just this afternoon, but likely to stand for millennia. Grim had determined that the clans would build these monuments at each place they camped, to mark their passage. He told the clans that it would be to display their glory to the world, so none of the other races would ever forget the season that the Gogajin marched united. In his heart, he also considered the possibility that it might be the only memorial left of his people's passing, if this offensive was a failure.

Below him the rowdy, merry sounds of a Gogajin gathering roared and tumbled about the landscape. With every clan represented, the racket could be deafening at times. On the other hand, even the Jevumm were leaving these travelers unmolested.

Someone scrabbled over the scree and came limping into view, a dark silhouette, illumined only by moonlight. By her pained gait he knew her for Keena, a clan-leader, a matriarch, and a wise one at that.

"You should be in the festivities, or in someone's bed, Keena."

With a grunt she sat down beside him. "I could say the same to you Grim, don't be an ass."

He smiled, showing his big flat teeth, and elbowed her in the ribs, a bit harder than he'd intended. "Well if you've come up here to chew on my balls, I've had enough today. A man can only take so much leadership and decision making. Then he has to sit quiet and drink mead until he pisses honey."

"The day you learn to piss honey is the day you might get me to chew on your balls. Till then, just pass me the flagon."

He gave her the mead and they sat in silence for a long time. To his surprise it felt better to sit silently with her beside him, than it did to sit alone.

"Keena," he started, "I've listened and I've listened to the advice of these Children of Steel. Ishikawa Tetsuro tells me things that are hardly to be believed. He tells me that the armies of Goshi will not only teleport and fall out of the sky, but they will roll across the land in metal fortresses. He tells me they will launch bombs that turn stone to liquid and people to ash. He tells me they will have things called cannons and artillery. None of this frightens me."

Keena just drank her mead and watched the encampment below.

"Having clawed my way out of the mines in Geneva Prime I knew some of this. I even knew, which is far more terrifying than all their weapons, that the Children of Steel are as numerous as pebbles on a mountainside. Ishikawa Tetsuro tells me that their population on Karia numbers over 400 million. It is a number I cannot even conceive of. What would 400 million Gogajin colts look like? Don't answer: a disaster, I know. With all the gathered might of all the clans at our disposal we have maybe a quarter of a million. Maybe. Still this does not frighten me."

He let the silence return for a few minutes, searching for the words he was after.

"We're Gogajin. We'll make our impact felt regardless of the odds. I'm not worried about my people doing their part. I couldn't be prouder to walk and work and fight and die alongside these people... It's just... High King? Me? I'm strong and I'm relentless, but I'm not wise like you Keena. I'm not..."

She tried to interrupt him then. He was being a damn fool and she was going to tell him so, but he talked right over her.

"It's more than me feeling out of my depth. It's like this whole thing, is bigger than us. I remember, when we were escaping from the mines. There were some people who helped us. When I was around them I felt like they were the kind of people who could pull this off. The kind who could keep it all from going to shit. One of them was a Vorax, the last Vorax I ever saw. She healed me with her tears. With her tears! It's like she could weep away the pains of the whole world if she tried. They were all like that - gifted."

"Grim, you idiot..." Keena interjected, but he gave her a firm look, and with his grizzled face he had especially firm looks.

"No Keena. I know I sound crazy, or like I'm forgetting who I am, but I'm not. I am Grim, Fiochmahr Clan. I am the strongest, fastest, stubbornest fucking Gogajin in this camp. I will out run, out throw, out crush, out fight, out drink, or out fuck anyone who says otherwise. But I'm also no fool and when I look up in that sky I see a universe which doesn't care how much you can lift or how far you can throw it. There are things at stake here beyond our ken, and there are people out there who have the power to influence things for good or ill, but I am not one of those people. The best I can do is gather all of these donkey-sons and daughters together to throw our might at the hungry maw of the beast and pray that it makes a difference..."

There was a long pause then, while Grim took the flagon back and drained it without taking a breath.

Keena looked at him appreciatively and he seemed to give her permission to speak, so she started softly, "Ah Grim. Even if what you say is true, what would we be if we didn't play our part? Could any Gogajin look themself in the face ever again if we didn't fight to our very last breath for what we love? If there is to be a future, I want to know that we will walk into it with our pride and honor intact."

In the moonlight she could see the tears glisten on his face even though he made no sound. His voice rumbled like stone as he said, "Then let us hope that the ones who hold the keys to the future decide to make it open for us."

A Dead Little Girl

2008-04-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

I leave Rei's tent and go find a place off to myself. I find one near the generators they have set up, and I run a cable out to a heavy metal table. Someone goes and gets me a chair. Its weird not doing things myself, even now. I sit down and feel a sigh slip out. Too much is happening. I can't think about it all. And if I made a mistake, bringing all those people here to die...

For what feels like the hundredth time today I wonder if Kyoshi would fly me to Marina. I know its gone way past that, but...I tried, and failed. Too heavy. Too much.

I shake my head, huff out another harsher sigh and lay the thing down in front of me. In the glare of the electric lights it looks like a big, wilted flower. I can see veins of some kind of metal through it. I look for a power source, and can't find one. It must run on psychic energy or something.

I spend some time looking at it closely, and then I separate out some leads from the cable and attach them to what seem like nodes in the webwork. When I switch the power on, the glove lights up. I can see channels of energy flowing through it. They're just fading into the air, becoming heat, because in this they don't do anything, but it lets me see where the web is broken, torn, thinned, stretched...I am about to ground myself and get to work before it hits me.

There's the red glow, there, and then its...healed. Looks good as new, the webs of energy still shining to my eyes. Now, seeing more of how it fits together, I can see how it might be modified. I couldn't tell you, or draw up a diagram or anything. I just...see. I hunch down and get to work, careful but quick.

When I'm done, I detach the leads after I cut the power.

I think I saw where they brought Aimi. Kyoshi is probably still talking to his brother.

***

She's there, and looks surprised to see me, then looks like the cocky nothing she usually gives everyone.

"Looking to sow your wild rice already, Moses? Why, your litter isn't even born yet." She gives me a look that would be alluring from anyone else. Her eyes are still like one-way glass.

"No. I've, uh, I've actually got a present."

"Listen. Moses. I'm taken. If I wanted to fuck a machine, I'm sure I could make that happen without all the smell and the talking. So if you've got flowers or candy or something, I'm really flattered, but -"

She shuts right up when I hold up the glove. Yeah, Aimi, it isn't that hard to figure out what you want.

"I've seen you playing around with weapons you find. Well, not playing. I know you're dangerous. But they just don't fit the bill, do they?" She just watches my hand. I know she's measuring for a leap. "Its good as new. Better than new, actually. I figured, you know, the stuff we end up fighting, its usually bad to get close. So now you can sort of discharge the energy you make from a distance. Not that far, maybe ten meters or so, and it won't do as much as it does otherwise, but..." She's breathing harder. I suddenly feel bad and disturbed all at once. I want her to listen, though, this once, so I toss her the glove. She snatches it out of the air with a flash and slides it over her arm in a motion that's almost too quick to see. She clenches her deadly little fist and out flashes the pink blade.

She looks up at me, almost unguarded, almost actually here. "I don't get it, Moses. What's the deal? You're not trying to seduce me - it must be the lack of a tail. I figured Rei would get this fixed and give it back to me. But you? It doesn't add up."

How to say it?

"When we met, a year ago, in the control room for the lift out of Goshi Mine...you know, I've never been afraid of you. Don't get all offended. I know you're an assassin, but...after a cable-car load of tentacled eyeless, you weren't that scary. What scared me was...I was scared for the other people you might hurt, the other people you could get to. That we might have sacrificed so much just to be free, and you could ruin it all on a whim, or because it was your job. It was...I didn't understand how someone could be like that." Her eyes are glass again. "No! Listen, I'm not done."

I look at her until she stops pretending to be admiring her glove. "Listen. I...know what it means...to be made for a purpose. One you sort of chose, maybe, but never really got to choose. One that got chosen for you, where you just...fit into bigger things that were happening around you. I know what that's like. And..." shit this is hard "and I know you've done terrible things. On a whim, as a job, whatever. But now I know a lot more about that too. Maybe this whole time, I had to go out into the world, and suffer, over and over again, until I turned into the person who could call down gems out of the sky, rust out a city of millions of people. All of the cities. Refugees, homeless, hungry, because of me."

"How many people did I kill, do you think? I...don't have the guts to even ask. You think you've killed that many, Aimi? I doubt it. You'd be one busy girl. And I did it all, and now, it looks like...like it might have all been a mistake. I might have done just what the Enemy wanted. I can't even know if the things I've done...if they were right. I can't even know if they were right."

A long pause stretches out between us. Now she's looking at me, and I'm looking away.

"If...if we get through this...if we are going to survive...we can't know what will happen. Its too much. No one understands. Elder Moon doesn't understand. Jin-Kalys doesn't understand. We don't understand. Maybe Mokuzai would see it, but he's gone. Maybe peace is gone. But, " I look back at her "but I know, I know that if we don't trust, then we'll die. If we can't trust, we'll all die, one way or another. No trust, no hope. That's it." I feel myself trail off.

She smirks slowly and broadly. "Moses. Are you saying you trust me? Because I'm still a very bad girl." She clenches her little fist again and the blade leaps to life.

I don't move, and she wilts, just a little, thrown again. I don't know why I want her to see. I don't know if she can. Is she going to understand me, now? Is she going to forgive me? Hardly. I might as well ask the lamp-post outside for reassurance. She's a dead little girl. Maybe not dead, not yet. I guess we'll see, now.

"Maybe. Kyoshi does. Rei does." I pause. "And look. I don't think you can stop me, if it comes to it. And I don't sleep anymore. You seem to like Zip. Rei is family. You love Kyoshi. I don't know if anything can kill Baldr. HighDive can kill anything, and I think you know it after the fight today. And Una saved your life, so killing her would be...just really sick. I think you'd need a reason to kill Raoul. I wouldn't try Ichirou. And...as far as Kyoshi knows, you spared Namie. So I told myself those things, and I decided to give you the glove back."

"And who knows? Maybe, I hope, I won't regret it."

I go out just as Kyoshi is going in. He looks alarmed, sees Aimi with her blade out, looks back at me, but I'm still walking. I'll let her tell him all about it.

***

I get lost looking for my own tent, and when I come in I wake Zipporah up. She rolls over to look at me from under the covers - I realize its cold outside and close the tent flap. The brazier inside starts re-heating the small space.

"Moses...are you going to sleep tonight?"

I stand there for a moment, take a deep breath and feel myself unwind. I give her my best sly smirk.

"Nope." And I don't leave the warmth of the tent after that.

Episode 33: Karia on the March

2008-03-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

I wake up after having worse nightmares than usual. I dreamt that...hmm... I walk down the hallway to Kiyoshi's room and quietly push the door open a crack. Aimi is sleeping on the bed, and I lurch to the floor as reality hits me again. It really did happen and I really do have to face her every day now.

After a dazed minute I pull myself to my feet and follow the sounds of Kiyoshi doing his sword forms. I lean against the doorway with crossed arms until he finishes. He really is an amazing swordsman. His abilities of concentration alone put nearly everyone I've known to shame. He finishes and says good morning. I return the nicety and cut to the chase - before a certain someone can interrupt us.

"I hope that you really care for Aimi; because she loves you, and not like I love you." I give him a meaningful look. "If you don't respond in kind she may do something worse than try to kill herself." For a moment Kiyoshi pauses, and looks almost vulnerable, "But she's so young." I can tell that he does indeed care for her, but still holds on to his stupid Allskin sensibilities about how things should be. "I think you're going to have to look past that brother," I say gently.

Great Sages how I hate to be the one to encourage my brother to treat Aimi well! But after he (with some help) saved her from self-inflicted death, he can't just keep her as a friend or sparring buddy. He might not get that, but I've seen how she looks at him - or tries not to look at him. Kiyoshi is the person who cut through years and years of horrid training by Mama Pain and Dr. Soren. She's not going to let him be anything but her everything.

Kiyoshi nods, "Yes, I will care for Aimi." I smile supportively, but my heart creaks a little. Now I have to share my brother. I ask if he'll spar with a me for a bit to try and shake off my dreams... If only my dreams didn't follow me out into the daylight.

All of us separate on various tasks. I go get some clothes for Aimi to wear (deciding on some assassin-proper leather pants and a short kimono to tie over the top), as well as a few sundry extras. I place her clothes by the door and work on sharpening Griever after I punished it so sorely on my bed frame.

Late in the day, we all start trickling back in, and Aimi (thankfully garbed) pops into the room with us. She's painfully cheery saying hello to us all. My better nature thinks to ask if she's hungry. Suddenly realizing that she is, I beckon for her to follow me. We walk down the hall side-by-side, and I hear a some murmur from Kiyoshi about maybe not such a good idea... "Is there something besides birdseed?" she asks. I make a face, "Blech. I normally eat meat. Raw. Which you might not like either. We'll find you some normal Cheldrun food."

We sit eating together for a good while. Her asking me either very ignorant or very intentionally embarrassing questions. I try to answer as if I was talking to an innocent adolescent, which she is not, but it helps me keep my temper under control. Just when I get up the guts to ask about her motives for helping Namie, the rest of the group joins us. She asks Moses if he's going to start moralizing with her now too. "Uh, no." he stammers, then goes to leave. That surprises me; I thought for sure Moses would want a serious talk/smack-down with her, but then again the poor man is extremely overwhelmed.

I take him some food on my way to bed. He asks for the fork, then commences shoveling the food into his mouth extremely quickly. I guess he's been hungry! About ten seconds later an empty plate clatters to the floor, and he exhales. We chat for a bit about what he's been doing, and his main problems. I tell him I'll see if I can get crops to speed grow so that the people can take them for supplies. Wishing him goodnight, I wonder why I even bother adding the 'good' anymore.

Waking up, I find that Aimi has spread an entire arsenal out on the large table in the common area. "Wow." I can't help but say. She asks for a couple opinions, then I finally have presence of mind to ask,"What happened to your gauntlet-thing?" Her face kind of falls, "Oh, I smashed it. I don't know where it is." "Hmm." I mutter, "I think Rei had something like a gauntlet with her, but I'm not sure if it's yours." Aimi looks a bit surprised, "Rei didn't mention it to me." I shrug. Great, the sibling tiffs begin already!

I spend four oh-so exciting hours standing in the middle of a field, letting the energy from Karia flow through me, when finally the crop is ready for harvesting. Actually thrilled at the last, I fly quickly to our departure point to tell Moses about my success. Being a bit late I just land quietly on the stage and wait for Moses to say his piece. He bows his head at the end, holding Zipporah's hand. The sky begins to ripple (with water?), and I hope he knows what he's doing this time, because that box on his back is ticking again.

Suddenly the city grows. I mean everything that could possibly flourish - does. Giant trees, vines and bushes suddenly reach maturity, flower, bear fruit, then wither, leaving behind sustenance for his people. And then all the rail cars sprout arms and begin filling themselves up with the food! I am absolutely amazed, and then I am really upset.

I walk up behind Moses: "You could have told me you know. I could have done something more beneficial than growing a two-kilometer-diameter crop the whole morning - apparently." Moses looks sheepish, as he is so good at doing, "I didn't know what was going to happen." I try and look put out, but he didn't know what the first two 'things' would do, so why would he expect this one? "Oh, okay then. It's really amazing Moses." He nods humbly.

***

We all make it onto the Senin and head for the Grand Chantry for the regrettable (in so many ways) task of delivering Mokuzai's head. Several hours later Kiyoshi finds us a nice open landing spot right near the remains of Inari's Grandmother. Even this far away from the Chantry, we are greeted by Zipsum emmmisaries as we deboard. Sings-Like-Frog welcomes us and begs forgiveness for the lack of several (only-the-Prill-worry-about-them type) formalities.

We proceed first to the Choir of the Dead and Mokuzai's grandson - Twilight. He greets us warmly despite the reason for our visit. Many of us offer condolences, and he chides us all gently; he reminds us that it is he who should be doing the comforting - not the other way round. We are offered to stay vigil, or time to speak with a choir member, or freedom of the Chantry as we desire. Rei and I chose to be heard by the choir, each in separate rooms, for much of the night. I have the loss of all my people and guilt over not saving Mokuzai to unload. The idea of facing Elder Moon the next day seems much more daunting than the oni that killed her mate. The Prill that speaks to me at long length wonders what would give me closure, would a ritual help?

I nod. It seems just the thing. I think I would warm my heart beyond measure to know that anyone but me cares that the Vorax are all gone. After the sun rises, Mokuzai's effigy (with his real head) is processed out for the Prill death rites. Just as with elder Winter, at the end of the ritual, Mokuzai's remains turn into shining motes of light that disperse into the world. At least Karia has Peace, if not us. I try not to see Elder Moon standing stiffly to receive condolences from many Prill. Much to my horror, after the crowd disperses, she comes over to us.

"Would you join me for the reception?" She doesn't look angry or bitter towards us, and we guardedly accept her invitation. After some exchanged niceties and polite conversation I can't hold in the guilt any longer. "Elder Moon, we can't express how sorry we are that we couldn't save him. We really tried." I try not to cry as to make a mockery of her much greater grief. She actually smiles sadly and says, "Child, I have never been able to keep Mokuzai from doing what he wanted to do. I certainly don't blame you for his stubbornness." I exhale and nod solemnly.

We decide we're going to leave the next day. It seems that I will miss witnessing the Vorax farewell rite, but other matters are more pressing than my cultural ego. We say our goodbyes, including to Moses' new good-family. Apparently he survived meeting Zipporah's kin. As we enter the open area where the Senin rests we see Inari's Grandmother surrounded by the Choir of the Dead. One comes to ask if I have some memento of the other Vorax, or some feathers of mine own. I am loath to part with the book of Vorax that visited the Grand Chantry (that was given to me that morning) so I give a handful of my feathers. They are more Vorax-y anyways.

The Choir continues in a spectacular ritual which culminates in a glowing ghost-image of Inari's Grandmother standing up, and its leaves filled with flying Vorax...tons and tons of them. Tears fall gratefully down my face. A Choir member approaches me and I hear something about "always tended" and "Vorax never forgotten". I try to vocalize an unspeakable thankfulness and slowly join the others on the Senin. As we fly away, it's long minutes before the shining light from the new memorial disappears from view. We will be remembered.

Family Ties

2008-03-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

A wisp of smoke is hard to see through jungle foliage in the middle of the night, on the night of the new moon.

Arrow teleported to a spot high enough in the sky that he would have time to get his bearings during the fall and choose a good spot in the canopy to disLocate into. It was quick. It was silent. He sent his thoughts through his earbud, I'm in, send the others. Seconds later the air was filling with his compatriots.

Timing, he reminded himself, would be crucial. Not speed. Timing. There was no way to be faster than a Zipsum, but you might catch them by surprise, if you were careful. Therefore, Arrow sat patiently, waiting for his compatriots to find similar perches in silence. They communicated by thought, avoiding even gestures that might rustle a tree branch and alert their sleeping quarry.

Patience and timing, were virtues Arrow prided himself on. They were his keys to survival. A Lieutenant in the Goshi army, a veteran Hei-Shi, and a survivor of no less than two encounters with the outlaws (once on the deck of the Rodan, and once at a flop house in Geneva Minor), Arrow made a habit of not getting himself killed - even when it seemed like Goshi command had it in for him, like tonight.

At his signal the first two units began disLocating into and out of Zipsum nests. Pink blades flickered to life sedating the sleeping Zipsum and their unconscious bodies were tossed into padded crates one on top of the other. Even as silent and as well coordinated as this effort was, it wasn't more than half a minute before the conclave began to stir, to awaken, and to realize they were under attack.

Now. Arrow sent the single word command out through the network.

In perfect unison the second two units of Hei-Shi deployed specially prepared gas bombs. They hissed to life all over the grotto as enraged Zipsum were drawing bows and grabbing wicked curved knives. The combination of steam and a neural destabilizer sent the Zipsum warriors into uncontrolled paroxysms as their bodies involuntarily began to shift forms and they lost all control of their extremities. While the blueish smoke wafted around trembling Zipsum bodies could be seen everywhere.

With the gas bombs deployed the rest of the Hei-Shi, including Arrow, leapt into action. It would be no use to try to contain the whole tribe. Some Zipsum had already escaped through underground burrows, or out small holes in the trees, or just by running really goddamn fast. But Arrow was pleasantly surprised by how many they had caught. Occasionally a conscious one would dive at him and he would happily bring a bluish blade into being on his fist and dispatch the maddened animal. His orders were to capture as many as possible, but he'd let his men know that they should defend themselves with lethal force. No playing games and getting injured.

While the rest of the Hei-Shi were fighting and gathering Zipsum bodies to be tossed into crates, Arrow looked around for the person that had been described to him. She would be painted in the colors of the tribe and wearing a chain of shrunken Cheldrun skulls. He found her tiny squirrel body quivering on the ground in a large hollowed out trunk of a Sygola Tree. Without hesitating he stepped on her hind legs with all his weight crushing them both, then he picked her up and brought her eyes level with his own. The pain in her legs made her lucid and as she looked at him her eyes narrowed in anger.

"Are you Living-Scarred-Heart, mother of High-Dive-Bludgeon?" He asked to be certain, according to his information she was the only one in the tribe who would probably understand Cheldrun.

She didn't reply but spit in his face, which he took as an affirmative. In response he squeezed until he felt a rib snap and walked back toward the rest of the Hei-Shi.

He tossed her into one of the crates that was nearly full, closed it and sealed it. Looking around, the work was almost done. Plenty had escaped, and one of his Hei-Shi had taken a poisoned blade in the neck, but otherwise it had gone according to plan.

The voice of Goshi Command came in over his earbud, Did you find them?

Yeah, he sent back, Tell Drives-Like-Oni that we got his whole motherfucking tribe.

Cat and Mouse

2008-03-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

It begins as a game. Kufu has never been in a city like Marina, and he needs time to learn the rhythms of the Cheldrun here - how they live, where they find food and water, their patterns, how they defend themselves. To hunt them of course.

Two delectable options immediately offer themselves. The first is enjoyed in the Outer Market District. There is tremendous commotion as hordes of refugees and rioters and heavily armed police clash in the streets below. Kufu finds a perfect place to sleep during the day, tucked between massive air-circulation fans that are now silent and useless. Most of the grand domes of Marina are shattered, and now broken shells arch over the inhabitants, spindly and corroded metal skeletons once housing shimmering glass. At night he descends and takes prey almost at will. Bodies and parts of bodies are found - a soldier with a helmet but no face, his throat torn out and entrails eaten. A vast pool of blood in an alley in which nothing remains but a pair of shoes, a hat and a left hand.

And swirling around him are nightmares echoing in the minds of the Cheldrun, twisting their bodies in restless movement as they try to sleep, making them cry out to awaken themselves.

The second options is best indulged a few days later, when Kufu is holed up in the abandoned construction site of a southern-style high-rise building, plastic tarps snapping in the wind around him, stretched out on the floor, sniper rifle braced against his shoulder, eye peering through the scope.

Heads explode before the report of the shot is heard. Businesspeople in rumpled suits dance a jig as multiple rounds tear through their bodies with rapid succession. The wind carries the thin sound of giggling. And of course, there are more nightmares.

He learns enough. The city is in a state of controlled chaos, a Maneater Ant nest swarming with frenetic activity, but nowhere near as organized. Even Shadowfang would leave such a nest alone. Marina, however, seems far more accommodating. And he is not here for mere sustenance, mere entertainment. He has traveled many hundreds of kilometers to come here, because this is where the leaders of the most powerful tribe of Cheldrun, the Biomade, live and have their chiefs. The chiefs sit on a Council - wise, since there are more than one. Oversight is its name.

Shadowfang will eat one of these chiefs, and when he does, he will be as strong as a chief of the Cheldrun. The Cheldrun's territory will be his territory. The Cheldrun secrets will be his secrets. He will restore his real name, Eris - NO! - Kufu! Kufu! Chieftain of Cheldrun and Karian, the Hunger of Karia, the Dream-stalker...and he will then turn, at last, to sating the hunger once and for all. To devour. To consume. To evolve.

At last he finds one - called Groom - who serves one of the chiefs of the Biomade. He doesn't ask, he simply bites, and rips, and tears, and chews, and when he is done, he remembers what Groom remembered, briefly but for long enough. He learns of members of the Council, particularly the one that Groom served, and he learns of another chieftain - one called Rain. Another Biomade chieftain, but one of a different kind. The leader of many warriors, gathering her strength to crush her foes.

Rain. Rain. Rain tastes of nothing, of sky, but this rain, this sweet Rain...it is his sudden purring that gives him away, his distracted state that allows it to happen.

There is the barest intake of breath, the slightest brush of feet on the carpet of the abandoned apartment where he is sheltering during the day, and they are upon him. They are like shadow-shaped Cheldrun, flickering in the afternoon light like reflections on water, fast - how did I not smell them!? - and rage wells up in Kufu, as well as surprise. He remembers seasons ago, hunting along the edges of a Gogajin village. They are celebrating the culmination of some kind of competition with other villages. A huge one, a champion perhaps, comes outside to relieve himself, reeking of meed and donkey. Kufu took him, his strength, his iron grip, and as he remembers he swells, muscles rippling and twisting beneath his skin.

The Cheldrun hunters are upon him and are almost immediately thrown back. One collapses gasping with a crushed sternum. Another is seized and hurled out the empty window frame to fall silently, ten stories down, landing with a crack like a dropped egg. Their blades flicker pink and slash, stealing strength, then blue, shedding thick blood. At last, as he crushes the wind out of another attacker, one pounces on top of him, slashing with a flicker of blue and then slamming the suddenly pink blade into the base of Kufu's skull. He goes limp at last as she drains him, dancing nimbly aside as he crashes heavily to the floor, already shrinking in stature, forgetting the Gogajin champion, forgetting everything.

They take his limp form, the rifle he was cleaning as he mused, clear the room and disappear with a flicker.

***

Shade delivers the package, which she was brought in to do. She mourns the three dead bounty hunters in her crew and waits with the fourth while he is in the hospital until they say he is in stable condition. With the remaining five, she divides up the sum that the Executor has paid them - the cash is dicey, perhaps just so much toilet paper in a season or less, but the promises, written up as contracts, are far more valuable. Not for the first time, nor the last, she silently thanks the Gengineers who performed the dihybrid cross which led to her...unique ability. She'd read that the extinct Vorax could do something similar. Well, maybe explorers would come across one in some out of the way place, and she'd get a chance to read the studies that would be published when they vivisected it. She'd love to learn how they do their trick.

Goshi will land on its feet, given enough time. Who will oppose them? Refugees with a famous terrorist at their lead? Hardly, however many apocalypses he can pull off, the son of a bitch. A few seasons of starvation and economic stagnation should take the wind out of them. It always does. Until then, there's no end to the work. And after, still more work. Goshi will come right back - maybe this tiger-man will even help them out, once he hears the deal. But either way, Goshi is the future of this planet, and it isn't down for the count, not by a long shot. They'll be back -

And then everything will be right as Rain.

Hope Enough (Rei's Lament)

2008-03-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

I sink into my bed on the Sennin, utterly exhausted. Emotionally spent. The cabin is dark around me, and the hum of the ship's engine is the only noise I hear, save my own breathing. Just once, for a moment, I shut out all the noise of Moses's thoughts, of Kiyoshi's thoughts, of Aimi's thoughts, even Ama-chan's thoughts: I shut out everyone else, and I am just myself.
Just Rei. I am alone with my thoughts.

I am alone with the Question.

The Question.

'You're a hero, Rei.' The words come back to me unbidden.

There is blood on my hands, Moses. ...So much blood. I've killed so many people I've lost count, and not all of them were guilty. Men, women, children. Executives, workers, students. I've made death with my hands since I was twelve years old... I've done terrible, terrible things, and I did them with a song in my heart. I still do. I felt the suffering of all of Karia, and I laughed.

I know that you meant what you said, but I don't believe you. I don't believe you for a moment. A hero? No.

How often I've tried to change. How completely I've failed. Time after time, I try, I try, I try again, but I've never really changed. Not where it matters.

Not inside.

Purpose. I thought I knew what that was, once. Then it all went away, and I had to figure out who I was and what I wanted all over again. I thought that if I knew the answers to those questions, I'd know what my Purpose was again.

... but who I am isn't what I want.

I am not a good person, Moses. I never have been. I never will be. I prove that every day. With every word. With every action. ... is it enough that I want to be?

Aimi wouldn't understand, either. She's never wanted to be anything other than what she is. Who she is. She's Aimi, and you either take her or leave her. Kiyoshi hasn't learned that. He thinks he can change her. If a person can't even change their own self, how can they change someone else?

... Purpose. What Purpose can there be? Is there even such a thing? ... On the Wandering Star, I thought I knew what my Purpose was, but I'm no First Mind. Half breed. Hybrid. Project Scion. Can there really be no understanding? Is there really no peace?

...

I am The One Who Hopes.

The words are true, but is that it? Is that enough? Is Hope the source of Purpose? Are they the same thing? ... I don't understand now as much as I did before.

What do you think, First Minds? ... Oh hell, you don't care. You just want me dead. Me, and all the Cheldrun on the face of the planet. What about you, Karia? You're supposed to be alive, aren't you? Are you watching me? Do you hear me? Is there even anybody out there at all? And is there Hope enough, is there grace enough, to forgive someone like me?

...

An Impossible Situation

2008-03-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Night is a time to let the mind wander shaded paths, to slacken one's bright focus. Heavy-lidded, Jin-Kalys is curled around a low table in an out-of-the-way tea-house in Stardown. He has been given freedom to move throughout the city, and is learning to ignore the Cheldrun who are curious to see an Anakarix sitting a tea-house, or going to a public bath, or walking down the street, or buying food with the city vouchers he receives. In the press of refugees and others who have come to the city, it is impossible to hide or to move about surreptitiously. Engineers are busy constructing temporary shelters and buildings on the outskirts of the city. Some arrive with supplies in tow, but as many others do not. Wherever possible, refugees and freedom-fighters are conscripted to work building shelters, digging new drainage, laying new pipes and power cables and so on.

There is the sense that, though there is a great deal of work to do, it need not be of lasting quality.

This will be over all too soon. Word has reached the city (by Zipsum, if nothing else) that Goshi has retreated to Marina, and is organizing some kind of massive military offensive. The hammer is being drawn back, and will be brought down one last time, not flickering Hei-Shi but the whole remaining might of Goshi Mining Corporation, wounded, hemorrhaging money, but far from dead.

Jin is distantly aware of this. He has two tasks in mind as he lounges in the tea-house, relying on the warmth of the tea to help him concentrate. Working after dark is for mammals. The first task is the completion of a sizeable letter in tiny, even, angular script to be delivered to Sighing Web of Trees via well-paid Zipsum messenger. Fortunately, food-vouchers can be traded for candy. In the letter, Jin is primarily concerned with describing his various adaptations of Nine-Branches Formal Logic. Stories of world war are of secondary interest, mentioned only as illustrations. Anakarix can be fearsome opponents if they are defending their tree-villages and particularly the tombs of the sainted lizard sages, but they are hardly a people to trek hundreds of kilometers across the continent to help Cheldrun fight Cheldrun.

It is difficult, but possible, to translate rational argument into purely written form. Jin is relying on an archaic script which retains markings to represent posture and positioning, as if the speaker were physically present. Someday, when this is all over, Jin hopes to return to Sighing Web of Trees to personally defend his theses.

The second task is...difficult to describe. Before he left his village, what seems like years ago now, Jin had made a crucial argument for non-rational processing, ultimately earning his most recent dewlap piercing. He is finding, however, that speaking is easier than doing. To clear the mind, to silence it, to wait patiently for answers to arise - almost impossible.

The conclusion he's reached about the energy-nullifying field that is currently spreading in the center of the city can't possibly be correct. If it is, then the city is doomed until the energy feedback runs out and begins to revert to a static state...and it is very difficult to predict when this will be.

The problem is a simple one conceptually but an impossible one practically. The energy-field steals kinetic energy around it. The obvious result is the intense cold that surrounds the device. Of course, any Anakarix more than a few years out of the Ovumcreche knows that Sol burns because it moves. A poet would say that it dances, spinning recklessly, dizzyingly. The movement, coupled with its immense mass, radiates warmth to the whole solar system. Karia, moving far more slowly around Sol, is far cooler, so that instead of fire, there is warmth for life, arising from the planet and radiating out from Sol. Planets closer to Sol are faster, and therefore of course, hotter, while those more distant are far cooler, moving in far larger ellipses. Karia, at the perfect distance, is the sole world with life, or so the sages say.

Obviously, some kind of intelligent being will have to get close enough to the device to alter it sufficiently. This being will have to carry with it a tremendous amount of kinetic energy, because it will be immediately sapped when it enters the nullifying field. Based on measurements taken at the edge of the field and Jin's careful calculations, aided at many points by Sousauryoku and his various calculating devices, this creature would have to be traveling at a speed that is many times that of sound. This amount of kinetic energy would burn said creature alive, incinerating it even if there was some contrivance by which it could be brought up to that kind of velocity.

There is a second solution, also impossible. The creature could be somewhat slower in the approach, only perhaps as fast as the fastest Zipsum on Karia, but it would have to continuously accelerate once it entered the field. The force required would be tremendous - more like one of the Cheldrun bullets leaving the tube of one of their guns.

Either way, once it reached the device intact, it is...possible...that something could be done. A great deal of energy must be introduced into the system, in order to buy Stardown time and achieve the two ends of the operation: 1) maintain the shield so that Hei-Shi don't rain down on the city and 2) prevent the city from being doomed to a frigid stasis, killing everyone under that selfsame dome.

If this theoretical bullet-creature could reach the device, it would be actually laughably simple to impart tremendous energy into the system - but impossible for any such creature to survive the interaction. Once the energy was imparted to the device, the creature would be left there, frozen and trapped, if it was not obliterated by the impact.

Sousauryoku has another solution, which, on the current theoretical level, is fascinating. He is designing an engine to be placed in the device. The metaphysical problem, of course, is that the device is currently powered by sacrifice, for all intents and purposes. It is fueled by lost potential. But Sousauryoku seems unable to clearly perceive this fact. He wants to understand it in terms of a particular kind of energy as the Cheldrun narrowly perceive it.

The Cheldrun cannot see - their devices are powered by sacrifice. The artifacts that they attribute to their First Minds exact some kind of price. In many cases, they pay it intuitively, not understanding why it is that ritual observances sometimes activate the devices. Even in their mundane technologies - something is expended, lost, in order that something else is achieved. The Mechified burn Blackrock. The Allskins burn incense and chant and hold to ancient ways. It is the Biomade who sacrifice most, but who understand their sacrifice the least, because it is of a kind that even Jin must admit he cannot comprehend precisely. They sacrifice aspects of themselves. They think they are being perfected, but they are only being pared down. In carving a plank, much of the tree is lost. Is a plank better than a tree? The Biomade think so. Jin couldn't disagree more...but it isn't his place to point any of this out.

In the end, however, the rule is the same. It is no different from the ancient stories of the Karians - in the beginning, the Dusk Sages created, and as they did so, they diminished. It is the nature of things.

Jin sighs and puts down his pen, massaging one clawed hand with another, staring off into the night. What will have to be sacrificed, what will have to diminish, before this is over, for better or worse?

He shakes his head abruptly. I need more tea. There is still a lot of work to do.

Just Before the Rain of Frogs, I...

2008-03-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

Please allow me to introduce... oh hell, that line is overused anyways. I'm Sif. Mechified, I guess. Raised on the closest farm to Geneva Prime, grew up being really fuckin' useful to everybody around me. That's sarcasm, by the way. Or maybe irony. Sometimes, I can't tell the difference. Anyways, I never really knew what I wanted to be useful for. Got a mechanical arm and everything, but it doesn't do much, except what arms do. My friends used to tell me I should become a farming model, but I have a hard enough time managing one mechanical limb. I don't think I'd want to bother with extra digits, or having a fucking plow attached to my nads or something. That's not exactly my thing, and I've gotten in trouble for it most of my life.

I guess a Mechified can't just be himself. He's got to be useful for something. Well I want to paint. How's that for useful? Yeah, paint. No tricky force-constructs, no energy patterns, just paint on a canvas.

... yeah, my parents didn't buy it either.

Neither did Rebecca.

I guess it shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. Being told that you're useless by your own fiance is a bit rough, though. Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca. Now there's a piece of work. Loud. Angry. Geared for office work. Yeah, a mechified office lady. We're not all miners. She'd got the data processor upgrades. You know, the ones where your fingers split open into like a hundred little fingers and you can type a thousand words a minute? She plugs into computer systems, too. Something about direct access and improved efficiency, harnessing a Cheldrun neural network. I have no idea what that means. I don't even know what the hell she does in Goshi tower every day. She's not allowed to talk about it. It's got something to do with the Heishi, but... yeah.

Anyways, I guess it comes as no surprise to know that this story starts with a girl. Most stories do. Or at least most stories that are worth listening to. It ends with one, too. Hey, symmetry. Ain't it grand? My life is a fucking poem. I hope somebody enjoys it.

Well, no, that's not true. I hope somebody chokes on it and dies. That's the sort of person I am. Now, at least.

I was in the fields when it happened, the walls of the city not a hundred yards away. You know, picking grapes for the harvest. Have to get the crop in before the year gets too late. Grapes are a finicky thing to grow, and ours are more finicky than most.

There I was, my fingers all stained with the juice of crushed grapes, already working up a sweat, when out comes Rebecca. She's as beautiful as ever, of course, and I tell her so, and she rolls her eyes like she always does when she thinks I'm brown nosing.

She really is beautiful.

"I'm going to work," she says, "You better not follow me again, or your supervisor's gonna be pissed."

I wrap my arms around her from behind and whisper into her ear, "Let him."

She gives me that look. You know the one. The one that says, 'you're an idiot, but I love you anyways.' "You can't afford to get in trouble again, Sif," she says. "Besides, whatever you've got planned, I'm sure we can do it two days from now. You know, the day we both have off?" She twists out of my arms and gives me a mischievous smile "Good things come to those who wait," she says, and taps me on the nose.

I grin, and she starts walking off to catch her train into Geneva Prime.

"You better not be messing with me again!" I call out after her.

"Me?" she asks, all innocence and light. I almost laugh. "Anyways, Joshua and Sarah are coming over tonight. You'll have the house ready for them, won't you?"

"Sure, sure," I say. I won't, but I say it anyways to make her happy. "See you when you get back."

She goes.

I should have stopped her, I guess. I could have. Maybe if I'd tried harder to appeal to her irresponsible side. Maybe if I'd told her I didn't like her working for Goshi. It's hard to avoid that, I guess, when they rule the whole damn world, but they're still creepy as hell, and I don't like the way those Heishi look. Should have done something, anyways.

I've never really been a religious man, you know. I live my life, I love the people I love, I work hard, and I try to get somewhere as a painter. Somewhere's better than nowhere, after all. I mean, I've seen those Allskins all pretentious with their First Mind worship, as if a bunch of dead Allskin ancestors are gonna bother to reply to anything we say to them, but I've never believed it. I hear the Karians worship the planet, and that's pretty weird, but better than worshiping your own grandparents, I guess. But what I saw in the skies that day...

Hours later, the day is almost over, and I'm still working in the field when there's a boom like thunder. I look up, and the sky over Geneva Prime has gone dark.

Funny. It hadn't looked like rain earlier. Our oak tree - the one my father planted when I was born, and the one I always take Rebecca to when we have time to kill - looks pale and dead in the shadow of the clouds. I guess it looks pale and dead anyways, but what can you do? It's still got leaves, at least.

There's another boom, and the wind begins to pick up. I gather up what I've picked so far and head for the shelter of the barn. Hell of a time to get caught in a rain.

Ribbit. Ribbit.
A pair of frogs hop into the barn. Then another. Then two more. Then another.

I look down at them curiously. "Huh," I say.

There's another boom, and then, in the distance, something red and gleaming falls from the sky. It lands about two hundred yards away - well inside the city walls - and I put my harvest down inside the barn and then head on over to see what it was.

... a nevergem? A red nevergem? Weird.

Something cracks against the back of my head. Sharp. Hard. OW. I reach back and... another nevergem?

What the hell?

The skies open.

Nevergems. It's raining nevergems. I'm being rained on by nevergems.

What the hell is going on? Is this ... some sort of god? Is this the First Minds? Karia, maybe? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Why would some big time higher power decide to rain fucking nevergems of all things?

... the crop is gonna be ruined.

"Sif! Sif, what are you doing!?" It's Rebecca's voice. She's running from the train station, but she's loud, so I hear her anyways. "Get under cover!"

I look up into the downpour. There's a big heavy chunk of nevergem the size of a melon heading straight for my head.

"SIF!" She's running towards me. She staggers as one of those nevergems hits her leg, but she keeps running.

I stare.

Give me a break here. It's not every day it rain's nevergems. Just before it connects with my head, I have time for one last thought:

'Well, at least it's not frogs...'

Episode 32: The Very Long Night of Daitokuji Kiyoshi

2008-03-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

I was running down a dark hallway with grey metal walls. (That's still new for me. Before I came to Geneva Prime, my dreams never had long dark hallways.) A loud booming noise followed me, metal footsteps. They came closer, closer, closer....*gasp* I sat up in bed with a sheen of sweat on my forehead. I was about to lay back down when I realized that the booming noise was real, and going down the hallway past my room.

High Dive had already left our room, so I peeked my head out and ran towards the source of commotion. To my surprise Aimi was in Kiyoshi's room - naked. I could tell by his face that he was in the Void now. And whatever came before, just now Kiyoshi seemed to be trying to capture his pink-haired (it's apparently natural by the way) charity case. Interestingly enough, Aimi said that she didn't want to fight any of us. But that didn't stop High Dive from running crazy circles around her to try and bind her. Some progress was finally made in that regard, when Rei stepped up to touch her sister. We stopped that little idea pretty quick. All of us had waited waaay too long to get our hands on Aimi.

As High Dive tied the last knot, Rei mentioned that Moses was fighting mecca by himself out on the street. What?? I glance at Kiyoshi, who glances at Aimi. "We must go help Moses," he says. We all agree and run out the door, leaving Aimi alone with knots and a dubious fate ahead of her.

I shifted into Vorax form and reach Moses just after High Dive. We are lucky enough to gather that Moses is badly hurt, just before seven more mecca come to join the fight - and not on our side. While I healed our mechified friend, and did wicked damage to a mecca trying to beat him down, two more mecca appeared as well as Rei and Kiyoshi. Luckily the two new mecca were fighting with us and Rei learned some nasty new trick that turned several mecca into rag dolls. It was rather unnerving, but as is her way, she was quite proud of herself. Certainly none of us were complaining at the moment! We made short order of the last of them, and Moses x4 molded a mecca pilot cage out of rebar.

He carried the enemy pilots back to our lodgings, and Kiyoshi, Rei, and myself each carried the inert body of the pilots who had helped us. Part of the walk back I was by myself strolling down an alley, when I heard someone say my name. Not knowing whether to expect friend or foe I set down the mecca pilot against a wall. I stepped forward a bit, "Who's there?" Quite suddenly Aimi appeared in front of me. Yes. The Aimi who I just found out had escaped. Griever twitched. "What do you want?" I heard myself ask.

"Kiyoshi isn't listening. Give this to him," and she handed me a sealed envelope. So now I'm a messenger for a teenage assassin's angsty, misguided farewell letter to Kiyoshi?? I tucked the letter bitterly under my armor, and she turned to walk away. Catch her! Finish her off! My mind cried to me. Why aren't you moving? Why indeed...

The look on Rei's face when she found out about the death of Sever and Stitch still haunted me, even though they deserved the death that High Dive and I dished out. What would happen when I told her Aimi was dead too? Also, Kiyoshi had captured her for judgment. My dear brother thought she deserved a trial, but the execution seemed inevitable - she admitted to killing Amuro Naimi. Not to mention all the other lives she's ruined. If I was just willing to kill some unknown mecca in a street brawl, why in the hell am I hesitating?

I feel energy begin to thrum. I am full of it. I know I can obliterate her, right now. But every step she takes from me feels like a pain in my heart. Speaking of, I shout out, "You broke Kiyoshi's heart you know." I thought she should know that Kiyoshi wanted to love her, before I killed her. She is laughing and crying as she takes another step. Right now Una! Let the power of Karia turn her to ash! Then I remember:

Karia wants Forgiveness. I scream inside my head. Nooo! Countless people have died in these last few weeks for far lesser crimes than hers! Another step. I remember Rei when we first met her, and how hard it had been for her to learn to respond to emotions with something other than violence. Step. Why in Karia am I letting her go?!? Step...Step. Moses is going to kill me. Rei will thank me. Kiyoshi will judge me. Step...Step...Step.

Time turns to sludge as she nears the corner of a building. This is my last chance. I can finish off the bane of Aimi once and for all. I begin to raise my hand as part of my brain knows what it should be doing, but my will evaporates...and so does Aimi. I stand trembling in the middle of the alley. What have I done???

After some painful number of heartbeats I remember my task. I gather up the mecca pilot just in time to hear sounds of battle from ahead. Did I let Aimi go just so she could immediately destroy us all? How could I have been so horrible and so stupid? Oh Karia, I hope you know what you're doing. I arrive at the next plaza just after some loud explosion went off. The pilot is set on the ground once again as I see that Rei is there, grievously wounded by shrapnel. I take the energy that would have atomized her sibling, and use it to force bits of rubble from her and heal her body.

There's no time to dally; there's obviously plenty of people left out there who want us dead, in a bad way. I'm told the final explosion was a suicide bomber of all things. We return to our lodgings. I remain in an agonized stupor while the others discuss tactics and plans. Something has been agreed upon, and people are about to depart for bed. "Wait," I say. I turn towards Rei while drawing forth the envelope, and poke her chest with each word, "Don't ever say I don't love you!" My voice nearly cracks with strain at every syllable. So I simply hand the note to Kiyoshi, and glance fearfully at Moses. "Goodnight," I manage to say and high-tail it to my room.

The next hour I spent with Griever, furiously attacking the rail of my bed. All the violence and anger that I should have showed to Aimi was visited upon that poor little bed. Why did I have to feel forgiving at that moment in the alley? Now I feel fear that she will kill many more people in her life, and that Moses will hate me for it. Heck, I'll hate myself for it. Why did she have to look so damn hurt and sad in the alley? And after she had just been completely non-violent with us! Can't I just enjoy getting back at someone, even once? With no pang of guilt? Please??

I sighed, and slumped exhausted against my shredded bed. I dozed for who knows how long, when once again my name was called out. But this time it was Rei calling my name. Oh Great Sages, what could be wrong now? I ran down the hallway (with Moses close behind) and saw Rei with Kiyoshi carrying a body.

It's Aimi.

I screamed in horror and jumped back. My head shook a negation. This can't be happening. They couldn't be asking me to heal her. I could see that she was very nearly dead. "She didn't kill Amuro Naimi, she saved her. Please help her," Kiyoshi said very seriously. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, and there was a pain in his voice that tells me that she really is more than his charity case. Moses was still furious that she was there and slammed his door shut. I was too confused to hold her body as I normally do, so I placed a ginger hand on her chest. I trust my brother, and I truly hoped he wasn't mislead.

Glowing blue tears mingled with salty tears of agony as Aimi's life is restored. I was this close to killing her. I would have destroyed someone trying to make a noble change, someone who my brother loves. If this was supposed to be a brutal lesson about the power of Forgiveness, Karia, consider the message recieved.

Episode 31: From the Ruins

2008-03-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

My home was being destroyed and all I could do was watch. I knew it was necessary and for all the right reasons but seeing Geneva Prime fall (and knowing that the same was likely happening in every Cheldrun city on the continent with the possible exception of StarDown) was still a hard thing for me.

We set down on a plateau above the city to await Blade's inevitable counterattack. Quickly we made ready as best we could, preparing the battlefield where possible. We had no idea how he was going to come for us or what he was capable of so we tried to prepare for every eventuality we could think of. In this our imaginations failed us. With a tortured groan so loud we could hear it clearly from where we were standing, the remains of Goshi Tower twisted and writhed as we watched. It reformed itself until it rose into the air in the form of a massive airship, easily as big as the Rodan had been. This was certainly unexpected.

I knew that we did not stand a chance if we simply stood there and waited for this behemoth to strafe us so I yelled for everyone to return to the ship. Once aboard I strapped myself into the pilot's chair and we prepared to take off to try to face the Enemy, a gnat attacking a bear. That is when things went wrong.

The door leading into the interior of the Sennin opened and out strode Katashi Blade, his face a mask of fury. I immediately felt the weight of an unstoppable mind upon my own, trying to crush all resistance. It was even stronger than I had feared it would be. I managed to hold him off for the first few moments, barely. Luckily it seemed my guess that he would not be able to affect Karians in the same way that Cheldrun telepaths could not proved true as Highdive launched herself at him and attacked, her movements so fast that she was literally a blur. Unfortunately her blows seemed to be stopped by a force field of some kind no matter how fast they came.

Meanwhile my fellow Cheldrun who had not had the years of training in mental defense that I had found themselves helpless before the First Mind's power. Moses, Julian, and Trencher started attacking Una and Balder, as well as each other. Rei launched herself in my direction and I thought I might have to defend myself against her, but instead she quickly dispatched the Sennin's main control panel. It seemed Blade wanted us to be sitting ducks when his airship arrived.

For my part I harnessed the anger, the hatred, the aggression, and righteous fury that was bubbling through me and I launched myself at the Executor, trying desperately to bring his defensive field down. It seemed to work as Keibatsu sliced into his clothes over and over again, inflicting what would have been mortal blows to any normal man. Blade staggered back, his glasses broken, staring hatred at me with his glowing white eyes and then I felt the mental assault renewed and... things become blurry from there.

I vaguely remember the overwhelming thought that Una was a traitor. I remember Blade fleeing inside the ship and the Karians chasing him. I remember Moses trying to hurt me, or stop me... I do not know which and I cannot remember how I got away from him. I remember being filled with a feeling of vindication and then my mind cleared. And I remember wishing it had not, because there I stood within a corridor of the Sennin, standing over the still form of Una, Keibatsu in her heart.

I screamed with primal anger. I was beyond reason and my memories are just as foggy about this point as they are about the time during which Blade was manipulating me. I ran through the ship's interior intent on finding Blade at any cost. I would have cut down anyone or anything that stood in my way at that point without a second thought. Thankfully nothing did and I reached a chamber where Highdive was continuing her relentless assault on the angry First Mind, moving too fast for him to effectively counter. I struck then with all my might, and again, and... I probably would have kept mindlessly attacking, barely heeding the overwhelming pressure of Blade's mind against mine, but even my all-consuming anger was not enough to block him for long and I was overtaken by the urge to kill myself.

This thought was not one foreign to me after having killed my dear companion. I had dishonored myself after all. But I had a job to finish. Unable to stop myself from committing suicide I decided my course of action immediately. No thought, no mind. Just action. I summoned forth Tsukuyomi and spun around toward him and Blade. I reversed my grip on Keibatsu and plunged it into myself, through my own torse, through the stunned Kyo Tee Shee, through The glowing form of the Executor of Goshi Corp. I suppose that is one way to deliver your resignation.

I could feel Keibatsu feeding on the Enemy's body and suffusing me with energy, trying to counteract the damage it was simultaneously afflicting. Tsukuyomi just looked at my quizzically and stepped aside as if the blade did not exist, contenting himself to stand and watch. Blade on the other hand grimaced and pushed himself further down Keibatsu until he was standing directly behind me and whispered exultantly "Do it again." Unable to resist Blade's command I twisted the sword in my bloody hands causing more pain than my body could handle and I momentarily passed out.

When I opened my eyes I was lying on the floor, my mind clear once more, though I knew I was probably dying. I looked up and saw Blade stumbling and wounded and thought to try to get up and finish him even if it was the last thing I did. I had forgotten that at least one of my allies was still in the fight however as Highdive appeared out of nowhere and fell upon the wounded Executor, biting and stabbing faster than the eye could follow. Blade tried ineffectually to swat her away as he stumbled and jerked from the blows raining down upon him. Still intent on making sure he paid for all the deaths he had caused I continued to try to force my body to respond to my will. I had gotten mostly to my knees by the time Highdive's assault finally proved too much for even a First Mind and Blade's form dissolved in a blinding flash of rainbow colored lights. The next instant a voice spoke in a manner that it seemed to echo from within my own skull. "I am Rensu Oni, the One Who Binds." And then everything went black.

* * *

I awoke to find myself alone, lying on the cold floor of the Sennin, covered in blood. I was surprised and almost disappointed to be alive. Struggling to my feet I started looking for any of my companions that had survived. I found the spot where I had last seen Una. All that remained was dried blood. I heard voices and followed them where I found my friends. All of them, alive. My eyes filled with tears of joy and Una and I hugged for some time.

***

Julian and Trencher had died and we buried them up on the plateau overlooking the ruins of Geneva Prime. Goshi had retreated, leaving the city in our hands. Moses spoke only of leading his people now to safety. And I was bound and determined to help him succeed.

Under the Dome

2008-03-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

A gnarly arthritic hand reaches up to stroke a long snowy white beard.

Sousauryoku considers the documents before him. They are on crinkled paper, bits of papyrus and other improvised material, but the carefully scrawled script is all the same - it is the meticulous foreign hand of the Anakarix sage Jin-Kalys. Reading it is like trying to decipher an alien mind, not unlike deciphering First Mind writing really, a process Sousauryoku is very familiar with. Frequently it is unclear whether it is all a bunch of worthless arcane drivel, but once in a while something disturbingly accurate creeps through the endless equations. It is enough to keep him searching.

A young Allskin boy brings him a steaming cup of tea and bows ceremonially three times on his way out the door.

Nuisance, that. Sousauryoku had grown accustomed to being something of a celebrated rebel before all this business started. He was either known as "the Allskin innovator" or "a traitor to tradition" depending on who you spoke with. He liked both epithets. He'd earned them by his unorthodox scientific opinion that First Mind Artifacts were really just an advanced form of Cheldrun technology that society had somehow lost the necessary knowledge to duplicate. Where most Allskins treated anything connected to the First Minds with something like religious fervor, praying to them, wafting incense over them, and hoping that they would magically start working, he thought it should be possible to dissect them and learn their fundamental mechanical nature in order to recreate it.

Advice to anyone who wants to be popular among Allskin traditionalists - don't start breaking their precious First Mind Artifacts in order to find out how they work.

Of course, he'd been right, well partially. He had to admit that he hadn't been able to conclusively demonstrate any of his theories, but from time to time he'd managed to get an artifact to do a new trick, or self-destruct in dramatic fashion. Proof, as far as he was concerned, that they could indeed be manipulated predictably. If you could predict some rather surprising results.

What made him even more of a controversial figure was his adamant attachment to all the usual outward expressions of Allskin tradition. He still wore a kimono. He kept his beard long, to show his age and status. He visited his parents shrine on a monthly basis, and so on. Maybe he was just cantankerous. Maybe he just liked the lifestyle. Regardless, he never changed his mind because of popular opinion.

However, his social role of rebel genius was seriously compromised, and against his will, when that Anakarix sent the dome roiling into the sky. Because the artifact had been his, and because people were fools, he'd somehow gotten part of the credit for that feat, and now with a full blown war on their hands the citizens of Stardown had elevated him to mythic-heroic status and he could no longer go anywhere without someone idiotically bowing and scraping their faces on the floor.

Nor did it help that he'd accepted the title of General, in the newly minted Stardown Defense Force. He'd had to. He had no military expertise, but there was no one else in this 2-second operation with an ounce of good sense. Well, except for that Daitokuji fellow. And the lizard. The lizard who might just know more about what the hell is going on than even Sousauryoku.

He tossed the papers down on the desk in frustration and acknowledged Jin-Kalys who had been sitting by the window soaking in the sunlight this whole time.

"Which piece is the bloody beginning?"

The Cheldrun language sounded strange rolling off of his reptilian tongue, "None of them. The Nine branches interweave, they do not evidence an artificial priority. The quintessential aptitude of the logician is residing in the whole rather than dissecting the parts."

"That sounds like a clever way of saying you've forgotten."

Normally that might have gotten a rise out of the sage, but he was too happy in the sun to let it bother him. "Not at all. If you wish I can arrange the pages according to a variety of sequences which may increase intelligibility for a mind unaccustomed to polyvalent temporal-symbolic mathematics. Would you prefer the order in which I penned the material, or the order of increasing complexity?"

It was at that moment that Head-Like-Steel, one of the Zipsum couriers the SDF was using lately, burst into the room.

"The machine thingy got worse again. Three people got frozed. We pulled them out, but we broke two steel poles doing it. Still no one can get near."

Sigh.

This was apparently a side-effect even Jin-Kalys hadn't counted on. Since the First Mind artifact was activated, the dome had been thrown up, yes, but so had an inertial dampening field in the vicinity of the artifact. Jin himself had barely escaped the field when it activated and now no one, literally no one, could get close to the bloody thing to figure out what was going on. Those that attempted were either rebuffed or else frozen solid. And this was no harmless cryogenic stasis either. The victims often died, or if they lived they lost digits and patches of skin to the frost. What was worse, is that the dome appeared to be growing day by day, and as the dome grew, so did the inertial dampening field. It had already completely claimed the old facilities of Stardown Technology and Research, Sousauryoku's company. It was starting to leak out beyond the walls of that facility now.

Sousauryoku stroked his beard a few times in silence before dismissing the Zipsum with a nod.

"Change of plans. We'll assume this isn't a load of rubbish, or at least that you can use the same skills you used to activate the device in the first place, in order to control it or shut it off..."

Jin-Kalys interrupted, "Deactivating the artifact at the present would be a catastrophe! We..."

"Well, then you'll want to find a way to control it, won't you."

"But no one can get to it at the moment. We'd need someone of miniscule stature and almost impossibly fast..."

"Are you telling me that the work of the sainted and eternal lizard sage, Asterakalys, the Helio-Synthesis model, as you have applied it through nine-branch formal logic is not up to the task?"

Silence.

With a jaw like iron Jin Kalys asked, "Did you retain the schematics of the artifact from your former facilities?"

"Of course." Sousauryoku couldn't help but give a satisfied smirk at that.

"Then let us get to work."

Restoring Order

2008-03-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Rain was still silently berating herself for having failed to follow her own safety protocols. The moment Director Kiyoshi and Moses had arrived in Geneva Prime she had insisted that all executives and officers be accompanied at all times by a disLocator equipped bodyguard. The purpose of such measures was to ensure the survival of key personnel in the event of sudden catastrophic occurrences. Yet she of all people, had been the one to tell her bodyguard to wait outside the room, during the advisory board meeting.

At the time it had seemed like an appropriate action. Her guard at that hour did not have the necessary security clearances to be present in the meeting, and Moses had unleashed one massive attack on the city just 24 hours prior. It did not seem likely he would strike again, so soon. But by the time the warnings started coming in the building had already begun to tremble. Clouds of dust burst in through the open sides of the building, where the glass had been demolished by Nevergem shards. Coughing and sputtering she had stumbled for the door. She found her man just as the entire room lurched sickeningly to the side and something struck her in the forehead.

There was no point dwelling on mistakes, but Rain was not accustomed to such narrow scrapes with death. As she sat in her new office in Marina looking at a display counting off the number of Goshi employees reporting, those injured, those declared dead, and those still missing, she could not help but reflect on how close she had come to being in the column labeled 'deceased'. A shiver went down her spine. It was the only expression of emotion she allowed herself. From that point she returned to the business at hand.

Goshi losses had been staggering, no question. Even Rain was forced to swallow the bitter admission that she had been brutally defeated. By what she could not say. By some power beyond the rational.

Katashi Blade had understood what was happening. She was sure of that. She was also sure that he had somehow intended it, or planned it. Not, perhaps, the destruction of the Goshi Tower, but at least he had intended the conflict with Moses and friends. He had known what he was getting into and believed he could handle it.

Rain had no such illusions. She would not enter into situations she could not control and since Daitokuji Kiyoshi's new associates were uncontrollable she would not engage with them. Despite her brush with death she felt no resentment toward them. They were merely an obstacle to be avoided rather than overcome. Based on the principal of avoidance she had ordered a full withdrawal from Geneva Prime - an order that included her new airship, Varan. Giving that order was the first time in her life that she had directly contradicted the will of Katashi Blade. It was vaguely possible she had been indirectly responsible for his death, by abandoning him, but she did not think it likely. The words of Moses echoed through her mind, "I'm going to show you that there is something more powerful than Katashi Blade..." Yes. She had not always believed that to be the case, but it was undoubtedly the truth. She realized it the moment she gave the order to retreat and leave Blade to his fate.

With Blade now dead, she was effectively the new Executor. Executor of a defunct corporation without access to its source of income, or means of production, and with very little capital to speak of. What she did have at her disposal was an enormous military.

Prior to the upheaval Rain had already begun the process of decentralizing, as a precaution. She'd established these offices in Marina, a series of armories and supply depots along train lines, outside major cities, and several redundant command centers for deploying the Hei Shi. Though Goshi no longer meaningfully existed as a mining corporation, it was still the most powerful military force in the world, and with this military Rain intended to reestablish order.

Order, it seemed to her, was her purpose. She had been created with a gift for figures and logistics. Not a telepath, nor physically gifted like the Hei Shi, she had nevertheless earned a place for herself in this world by demonstrating repeatedly that she understood how to make things function. Blade had trusted her like he had never trusted anyone else. A choice, which ironically had turned out to be incorrect, but he had based that trust on her incomparable competence. If you wanted something done right, Rain was the person to ask.

And so she planned to wipe out the resistance in Stardown, not because she bore it any grudge, nor even because she had any loyalty to Goshi, but because the resistance, going back to the UMA a year ago, had been the source of disorder in her estimation. Cheldrun society would go back to a normal, functional, kind of existence if she could only excise the elements of disruption.

Yes. Surely that is how it will work.

The Signal

2008-03-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

At last, Moses is able to press his way through the throngs of gawkers and cheering Mechified, shouted greetings and growled curses, thrown garlands and bottles. He is clutching a crumpled sheet of paper to his chest. Zipporah is nimbly slipping along behind him in the space that he makes like a gleaming metallic ship in a sea of pressing bodies and hammering sound. Her ears are pressed to her head and she has a fistfull of his coveralls so they aren't separated. He is always aware of her, and will reach back now and then to pull her forward or gently but firmly push people to either side.

He enters the telegraph station, creaking and tottering on its foundation, but only mostly rusted away, and still servicing underground cables. The technicians, all Mechified, are standing when he comes in, eyes wide, shifting from foot to foot nervously, looking at each other. The floor is knee-deep in coiled paper with endless messages printed on meter after meter of it.

Moses nods to the Mechified. "I have a message to send."

They start, and then all settle back into their seats and prepare to transmit. I don't know if I can send this everywhere, so I'll have to do this the normal way.

He clears his throat and reads from the crumpled piece of paper.

"Begin."

"My name is Moses, and I am the servant of the power of Karia that has brought Goshi low."

"Stop."

"I have done this to bring freedom to my people, and I have learned in the past months that all Cheldrun and all Karians are my people."

"Stop."

"Now I am leading all who will follow me to Stardown."

"Stop."

"We are going to Stardown to face the Enemy and to defeat them once and for all."

"Stop."

"Goshi is broken but not yet fully defeated, and they will make a last attempt at facing us in open war."

"Stop."

"We will defeat them once and for all, as we have defeated Katashi Blade, because they have been serving our Enemy all this time."

"Stop."

"Any soldiers or other employees serving Goshi should know this -"

"Stop."

"-that you have this chance, this final chance, to leave Goshi and start a new life for yourself."

"Stop."

"Because when you bring war to us, we are going to crush you utterly, so that nothing of Goshi will remain on the face of Karia."

"Stop."

"All who wish to join us in Stardown to fight for the fate of all Karia should gather there with all of the resources you can bring."

"Stop."

"All who don't want to join us should rebuild your lives, and choose new leaders for yourselves now that Goshi is broken and its power is coming to an end forever."

"Stop."

"If we win, then use your freedom to build better lives for yourselves and to become better people, Cheldrun and Karian together."

"Stop."

"If we lose, then this is goodbye."

"Stop."

"Never stop fighting for what's right."

"Full Stop."

Episode 30: Bringing Down the House

2008-03-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

Pain. My hands go to my throat.
Torn. Blood seeping out.

"Hello, sister."

Sever. Stitch.

Zippora, Raul, Terra, Julian, and Trencher are free, but their thoughts are like little fragments of pain and anger, refracting wildly across the room. Ama-chan's thoughts shine like the sun. Warm. Comforting.

I am bound in cables. Stitch's cables. Arms and legs and throat.
It hurts.

I can feel their thoughts brushing against my mental defenses, but for all the pain and all the blood, I am glad to see them.

"So you're both alive," I say, and it hurts to talk, and there my voice is at least half bloody gurgle. "I'm glad. I was worried."

They exchange glances, and I'm not sure if the troubled look I see there is real or just my own wishful thinking.

I briefly consider the possibility of grabbing Zippora and teleporting away: she's important to Moses.

"Before we kill you, sister, we need to know something from you," Sever says. "Think carefully. Do you know where Aimi went after she killed Amuro Nami?"

My thoughts race. Amuro Nami. I have no idea whatever, but I'm not about to tell them that. "I have an idea," I say, "But why would I give you the one piece of information that's preventing you from killing me?"

Their minds press against my mental defenses again, skittering across the surface like ice on a grill. Stitch looks frustrated, and he gestures.

The chains begin to pull at me, pulling me apart. He means to tear my arms and legs off.
We can't have that.

I vanish.

I reappear next to Stitch, and he whirls around, and his chains whirl with him. In an instant, I am bound again, but with one critical difference: my right arm is free.

"The first mistake you made," I say, "Is assuming that you had a chance in hell of beating me." I strike, aiming for a nerve cluster at the base of Stitch's neck. My aim is true, and he collapses, coughing and choking.

Sever flicks his hand upward in a sweeping motion, and I feel a horrible sense of tearing, and I look down just in time to see a terrible gash open across my body from my navel to my collarbone. There is pain, and blood, so much blood, and I can see my own ribs, and lungs, and something - the ground, maybe - smashes into the back of my head, and everything goes dark.

---------------

The empty void.

First Mind eyes.

Voices. Voices in the dark. Whispers. The Enemy whispers.
"One Who Hopes, will you fulfill your part in the conjunction that is to come?"

Of course I will. It is preordained. Who can escape their purpose?

Ama-chan whispers.
Mikomi, Mikomi, Reikomi, Mikorei...

The Void...

*FLASH*

Two little boys playing in the park.

It had only happened once. Once, when Mama Pain was away on business, and Doctor Soren said that children should play. I was fourteen. I didn't understand what 'play' meant, but Sever and Stitch did, and Aimi, and Malicious.

I sat at a park bench with Doctor Soren and Nero.

Four children playing in the park on a golden day in Geneva Prime.

Ash-gray buildings rose up all around the park, pulsing with spectacular displays of force and energy. All of the playground structures did the same, and all around it was green, green grass that was curiously empty and silent. No force. No energy. Just grass.

There were other children there, too. Other young Biomade, here for recreation. A few Allskin adults accompanying their young. An Allskin child told me my eyes looked funny, and when my mind touched his, I didn't know him. I didn't understand any of the things I saw in his mind. It was like trying to read the mind of the Zipsum that Mama Pain had brought in for us to try to scan. The Zipsum thought in triangles and mirrors. The little boy thought in joy and sunlight and play and family and petty self-will.

I didn't understand.

I watched while the four of them play, with Malicious supervising the games, and for the first time in my life, I felt envy: my own envy, and not someone else's.

Sever and Stitch, laughing, and their laughter wasn't cruel but joyful.

Aimi dashing away from Malicious and shouting at the top of her lungs, "You're it! You're it!"

Malicious racing after Aimi, then darting to the side at the last second to tag Sever. "Sever's it!" she shouted.

"Are you sure you don't want to go play with them, Rei?" Doctor Soren asked.

I looked up at him, and my mind brushed against the surface of his mental defenses. "Play?" I asked.

Nero shot me a sidelong glance, and then said with the savage honesty of a child, "Rei doesn't like tag. She always thinks that she's it whenever anyone gets tagged, because she's defective and can't tell the difference between herself and everyone else."

My cheeks burned, and I sank into myself.

The laughter of children echoed around the park.

--------------

I awake in Una's arms, coughing and spluttering as if I had just been resuscitated after drowning. The pain is gone, and the wound is gone, but the blood is not. My surroundings have changed. We are in the courtyard outside of the inn. Battle rages all around us. Sennin descends towards us, and Heishi are dying everywhere.

I look up at Una. "Sever? Stitch?" I ask.

Her eyes flicker. "Did this to you," she says.

I feel a lump in my throat, and a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Where are they?"

She continues walking towards the Sennin, carrying me. "... They're dead, Rei. High Dive was too fast."

The world falls out from under me. I push myself out of Una's arms, and she watches me for a moment, alarmed, but I'm not paying attention to her anymore.

There is an explosion near the Sennin, and Una looks torn for a moment, and then rushes over to help the wounded.

Sever and Stitch are dead.

Dead.
Dead, and dead.
What kind of word is that, dead?
A word of endings, darkness, and terror: a horrible, smothering sort of word, and filled with other horrible words like a corpse over-ripe in its corruption, overflowing the measure, and spilling its putrid excess into the terrified mind. A word for we know not what. A word for the descent of the Named into nonentity, and the jury still deliberating over whether any reascent is even possible. A word for all the piles of rotting leaves warming the gutters of the world.

Sever and Stitch are dead.

I'm screaming. I beat my fists against the earth, against the corpse of a dead Heishi.

The question...

And then Ama-chan is with me.

"Amaterasu-chan," I whisper. "... Feed. Take all the mana you can find."

She goes to work, devouring the White-Rock in the DisLocators, and I rise to my feet. I don't see the combat around me. Bullets whiz by my head, and I don't notice.

I open the basement doors and I descend.

There they are, Sever and Stitch, the blood all over the floor, their red eyes staring up at the sky.

Dead.

I stare at them for a long, long time.

"You're not ever going to leave me, are you Ama-chan?" I ask, and my voice is a small, broken thing.

Leave you? I can't leave you. Never ever ever, unless you die. I'm bound to you, remember?

It is a comforting thought. ... I don't want to be alone.

Then I'm back on Sennin. I don't remember DisLocating, but I must have. Kiyoshi is saying something, but I don't hear him. Una takes me by the hand and leads me down to a cabin. Mine, maybe.

It hurts. It hurts more than anything. My brothers are dead.
I cry in Una's arms, and she holds me, and murmurs words of comfort.

My brothers are dead, and it hurts.

Life?

------------

I don't remember much of the rest of the day. I do remember that I told Kiyoshi that I don't blame High Dive for killing my brothers. I was lying to him, of course. But part of what I said was true. You don't blame a soldier for killing an enemy in the course of a battle. You blame the people that sent the soldiers into that situation in the first place.

Katashi Blade.

The name is like acid on my tongue. It's taken me a long time to get here, and many people have died, but I'm here, and I know what has to be done. Katashi Blade sent my brothers on a suicide mission. He couldn't have expected them to survive. At best, he expected them to kill one or two of us before they were themselves killed.

There's something in me now, an emotional state I've never really felt before. It's not anger. It's not hate. It's not fear. It's not grief, though I feel that, too.

It's wrath.

Wrath enough to burn the whole world. I will kill Katashi Blade. I will always remember the broken bodies of Sever and Stitch in that basement: revenge be mine. Even if he is a First Mind, I am at least half First Mind. That has to count for something. He will know fear, he will know pain, and then he will die.

Truth might be changed by victory...

I realize suddenly that my fists are clenched so tightly that I have drawn blood. I am standing on the open-air bridge of Sennin. Moses is looking out at Geneva Prime in the distance. He means to call down another... plague, I suppose. He calls it deliverance. Part of me wants to stop him. Part of me thinks he's going to destroy Cheldrun civilization, but right now, a larger part of me doesn't care. What Moses is doing will draw Katashi Blade to us.

Kiyoshi stands close at hand, Keibatsu drawn. He's been very quiet since he learned what Aimi may have done to Amuro Nami. For a moment, worry for Aimi breaks through the haze of wrath, and I hope that there is enough of the Information Broker organization left intact to tell me what I want to know when this is over.

... I never should have drunk all that sake. But I needed something to make me forget the world, for a little while. I knew that drinking would break down the barriers in my mind that keep me separate from everyone until I'd sobered, but I did it anyways, and now Kiyoshi knows about Aimi and Nami.

Una asked me if I'd be able to resist the control of the First Minds. I told her it was more like being Home than like mental control, but that's not entirely true.

It's both.

Not for the first time, I wonder if I'll really be able to resist them if they ask me to do something.

They're firing on us. Heishi. Teleporting aboard. We've prepared a place to fall back to. A place to destroy all that come after us. Ama-chan laughs delightedly at the thought of eating so much mana in all those dead Heishi. I smile. Battle is joined, and for the first time since Marina, I lose myself to the joy of the slaughter.

Even as Moses calls down his plague, even as a horrible black cloud descends on the city, and the buildings begin to crumble, even as the Goshi Tower tumbles down into ruin, I smile.

Wrath.

Katashi Blade, we are coming for you, and I no longer fear your mental influence: I will take part in your damned fate.

... Life?

Contemplating Forgiveness

2008-03-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

It happened right after. I was in the flophouse basement basking in the sweet atmosphere of vengeance. The bodies of Sever (without a jaw) and Stitch (without a stomach) lay upon the ground. These boys who had caused so much pain and harm were finally dead. I thought I couldn't be happier. Then I glanced over to Rei. Someone wouldn't be very happy about this.

{{{FORGIVENESS}}}

The word echoed in my head like a gong. I tried to shake it away as I picked up Rei's vivisected body. How could forgiveness for horrible Cheldrun like Sever and Stitch possibly help Karia achieve the answer she desires? She gave me the power both to hurt and to heal. What does that mean?

My mouth sings a lullaby, and glowing blue tears flow down my chest and arms onto Rei's body as I run out of the smashed basement. Maybe forgiveness doesn't mean not fighting, but what does it mean? Moses' essence is blissfully self-explanatory. Do I just stand there and the end of days and tell everything, "I forgive you"? That can't be all there is to it.

Rei became conscious, and I had to affirm that her 'brothers' were truly dead. She ran off, and I wondered how I would feel if she hated me for killing Sever. I wondered if it would mean the world to me... If indeed it would mean all existence to me...

Episode 29: The Man in White

2008-03-12T00:25:00.000-07:00

I hugged Griever to my chest wondering how soon I would have to use it. High Dive had been gone almost ten minutes just trying to find a way to spy on Katashi Blade's office. It doesn't normally take her so long, but then again Katashi Blade doesn't have your everyday kind of office. And then there was Rei tucked down behind one of the console-desks; where had she been? The fact that she brought Balder with her certainly went a long way towards her credit. If she had searched out Balder, then she probably wasn't planning to come back just to wipe us out for the First Minds.

My thoughts were interrupted as the elevator by my shoulder began to indicate an impending visitor. I hoped for Kiyoshi and Moses, but prepared for Katashi Blade. What I got were two Hei-Shi and some scared looking office guy with an ear bud. "Bamuna of the Reikoku nest?" he stammered. I nodded, "Yeah". "I was told that a Rei and Balder would be here as well... Where are they?" I informed him that my companions had done what they wanted to do. (In this case it happened to be hiding behind desks in the room, and staying hidden.) He wanted to escort me to my fellows in the main plaza. "Are they still alive?" I asked with a sardonic twist to my mouth. Much to my chagrin, he checked with his ear bud to inform me that they were indeed still alive. Yeah, but for how long? I promised him that I would take myself to the plaza, and took a flying leap out the broken window. Man, I would have loved to look back and seen his face...

I dove down in Vorax form to the plaza expecting the worst. On the negative side there were six squadrons of Goshi soldiers in the plaza facing my friends, on the positive side they weren't attacking yet. I called out to get Kiyoshi's attention and braced my talons to show him my intentions. He didn't move away, so I took that as permission to take him out of there. Moses was standing at the focal point of all the soldiers. Damn. It's so frustrating not being able to just pull him up out of trouble too. At least he can take a lot of scrapes and come through okay.

Then things got strange. A wind started picking up the the sky was filled, and I mean filled from horizon to horizon with stone-colored? stuff. This was immediately after one of Moses' shields appeared in front of me and some crazy red lightning danced around him. Great. What in the heck is happening now? If Moses thought we needed protection then something nasty was coming. I booked it to the roof of the nearest building with some sort of shelter.

We landed, and Kiyoshi was about to expound upon his suggested plan of action, when some beflagged strumpet in black and yellow strolled up. She spat something about clan honor and Kiyoshi and all companions needing to be killed. I rolled my eyes as her (lovely I must admit) bracers activated to shift her into a mecca. Kiyoshi and I jumped off the building planning on a smooth getaway, but the woman jumped!

She managed to land a slash on me while I was carrying Kiyoshi, which made me slam into the side of the nearest building. With the extra weight, this unfortunately sent me into a barely-controlled dive/spin to the ground. So there, back in Goshi plaza, all of us but High Dive faced off four stunningly dangerous creations... as it began to rain nevergems. Long, sharp, nevergems. Was this really what Moses intended to do?

Faced with people that we really didn't want to kill, Kiyoshi began to glow silver and laid a thick layer of guilt upon us all. Should I have physically restrained my brothers and sisters from the Last Flight? I'm sure I could have saved at least one... In the end, one mecca joined us against the others, but the other three remained stubborn. The crystal storm was also getting intolerable. High Dive showed up under an overhang, so we all hunkered under Moses and dashed that direction. Kiyoshi told Rei to teleport us to Geneva Minor, and as our little group touched High Dive we disappeared in a whiff of smoke...

...and appeared not in Geneva Minor. We were by some train station outside of Geneva Prime. I gave a questioning look to Rei, wondering if I gave her too much benefit of the doubt upon her return. "I told Surgeon that I would meet him here," Rei explains. Ah. Baldur and Surgeon. She's either really understanding who should stick together, or she's really kissing our arses so that she can catch us all unawares later. I of course prefer to think the former, but still worry about the latter.

Trainload after trainload of people arrived fleeing the city, as we contemplated the poster with 35 years for Kiyoshi's head. (High Dive was very annoyed that she wasn't regarded as equally as dangerous, and proceeded to draw up her own poster which portrayed her as a squirrel having a very very bad hair day and worth tons of years.) Moses spoke briefly with the crowd about what he felt was the right course of action for them, and then Surgeon was put in charge of making arrangements. Moses' people were supposed to go to Stardown it seemed. But of course, we had to figure out how to get rid of Katashi Blade first so that they weren't all slaughtered on the way.

Speaking of Katashi Blade: While we are at the station amongst the throng, the screen alongside the track illuminated to show the face of the man in white. A very very very angry man in white. Mr. I'm-So-Cool proceeded to lay out the most rabid string of insults and threats you could imagine. I didn't know he had it in him, literally. He reaffirmed that he would not let anyone leave the city upon pain of death, and that Moses was welcome to come and get him. I liked that last part best. Aww, he wants to see us again, how sweet! I touch the handle of Griever reassuringly, "Maybe it's time we introduced you two to each other."

After our resident machine-people affirmed that could not send an equally taunting message back to the entire city, we linked hands once again and puffed off to Geneva Minor. We landed a bit away from the flophouse, so Rei went to check that everything was on the up and up. She came back to affirm that it was indeed on the down and down. What a perfect day - sheesh. We decided that Moses and Kiyoshi would go to get the Senin (Kiyoshi had one of those "I will be okay by sheer force of will" looks on his face as he departed for the deeps of the bay). I sighed, but I knew that Moses wouldn't let him get die. Baldur and I waited in view of the front door in case things went bad, and Rei took High Dive to sneak (green glowy sneak? Oh. No. Smoky shadowy sneak.) into the basement room where all of our companions were being held hostage.

This could all go really smoothly, with us all on the Senin before a single (conscious) Goshi soldier knew we had been there. But as Baldur and I waited in the too-quiet dark, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach...

Uniting the Clans

2008-03-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

"Sons, daughters of Karia, ye knowe me. The name's Grim, of the Fiochmahr clan. Ye know them Cheldrun bastards, too. Goshi, they be called." He stood before the leaders of the clans, proud and tall, his heavily muscled frame yet marked with the signs of the last fortnight's festivities, and Ishikawa Tetsuro stood at his side, looking for all the world as though his tattered clothing were a kimono of the finest silk.

They stood before him, Gogajin all, listening as he spoke, forty five clan heads, male and female alike. The massive camps of all forty six of the clans gathered here stretched out as far as the eye could see around this large, central, rock-strewn meadow. Or at least it had been a meadow twelve days ago, when the games had begun. Now it resembled more closely a war zone. Around the clan heads, a larger crowd had gathered. The clan heads were all stood in a a large stone amphitheatre at the edge of the meadow - a traditional meeting place, and neutral ground - that carried their voices rolling across the crowd.

"Aye, we know them. Get on with it!" Shouted a middle-aged Gogajin from the middle of the group of clan heads.

"I've spoken with ye yche one, and there no nas never any one of us what's not been struck by them at least once since the new year began, and struck a sore blow. Well I say we've had enough! I say it's about time we stopped letting these Goshi types, these Heishi, raid us whenever the fuck they want!"

--------------

Ishikawa Tomoe of the Ruby Hawk clan stared at the ... man... in front of her in disbelief. Had this... this... donkey-man actually just propositioned her? HER? As if being dragged away from school in Matamos and into the wilderness wasn't bad enough, now there were overgrown donkeymen asking if she wanted to do... THAT, with them? It was an outrage! She wouldn't stand for it! She was going to tell her father about this, and then they'd see what happened to this presumptuous...

"If you fucked him, do you think that would count as bestiality for you, for him, or both?" Midnight asked.

The Gogajin burst into belly-laughs, and one of them clapped Midnight on the shoulder good naturedly, and the biomade girl staggered, but managed to recover quickly enough, and shot the Gogajin a cheeky grin.

Tomoe tried not to grind her teeth. "Remind me why you came with us again?" Tomoe asked. "It's not like you were in danger from Katashi Blade's purge. He's one of your kind."

When her father had said that he and his Gogajin ally were going to rally the clans, Tomoe had not expected this... carnival. They'd been at it for three days now, engaging in competitions so savage that she could scarcely believe that none of the participants had died. Certainly she'd never seen anything quite like their game of 'catch,' and the boasts? She knew what that was. That was a bunch of little boys trying to prove their virility. ... and she still didn't know what to make of the women who participated, and just as freely as the men.

The Gogajin... confused her.

Midnight raised an eyebrow and turned to face Tomoe, her long, dark hair catching in the wind as she did so, a look of surprise on her face. "... Are you serious?" she asked.

Tomoe blinked. What does she mean, am I serious? Doe she think I'm... oh. Oh. No, that couldn't possibly be the reason. "... Yes?"

Midnight smiled a pained sort of smile, and Tomoe's surprise grew to ever greater heights as the Biomade gave her reply: "Because you do what you can for your friends, yeah?"

... Friends?

Tomoe stared. In all their years at the Academy in Matamos, she had never, not once, thought of Midnight as her friend. She'd thought of her as a rival, as an enemy, as a classmate, but ... friends? She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Friends.

For the first time in her life, Ishikawa Tomoe of the Ruby Hawk clan was at a loss for words.

------------

"An' how do you plan to stop them, Grim? We already tried punchin' em in the face, and throwin' big rocks at 'em, and pushing 'em off cliffs, and punchin' em in the stomach and THEN punchin' em in the face..."

Some of the clan heads surrounding Orla of the Troid clan had the decency to look embarrassed. She'd got where she was by being young, charismatic, strong and tough, but had never been the brightest bulb in the bunch.

"Much as I hate to agree with Orla," said Keena of the Muintir clan, an old Gogajin well known for her wisdom, "She does have a point, if you turn her words inside out, stand them on their head, and look at 'em through a mirror. How exactly do you plan to stop a force that can appear and disappear whenever it wants?"

Grim clapped Ishikawa Tetsuro on the shoulder, and the Allskin staggered beneath the blow. "Old Tetsuro here tells me there's a place where these smoke-puff soldiers can't get to. A place where people are holdin' out against Goshi, mounting some real fightin' against them. He says that Goshi's mounting an army to take the place, and they'll probably do it, too, since they control all the other Cheldrun cities. An' he says that once we're on the move, it'll be harder for them to find us. Cheldrun folk don't do so well in the wilds. That's me plan, though. I say we march on over to this city, this Stardown, and we show those Goshi bastards what for!"

A murmur went through the crowd, then, and then Keena spoke up again. "Why should we march to defend a Cheldrun city, Grim? It's got nothing to do with us. Troubles come and go, but we endure, and the land endures. This is ours, isn't it? All this? Look around you. This is Gogajin land. Why should we up and march off to some Cheldrun place?"

----------------

Inari blinked. "You've got eyes!" He'd been trying to shake this zipsum for days, figuring that it was probably better to avoid the little bastards ever since he'd had to flee from a whole tribe full of eyeless turbo-squirrels.

"Uh, yeah," the Zipsum said, brushing the dust off his clothing as he strolled up to the young Prill. "You run into a lot of Zipsum without eyes?"

"Yes. Well, no. Well, I did once, and you can never be too careful. I think it's very important to have eyes, after all, and I don't think much of the idea of losing mine." He brightened. "But you've got eyes, so it's ok! I'm Inari."

The Zipsum raised an eyebrow at that. "Inari, huh? That sounds familiar..."

"I was named after a legendary Kyo-TeeShee," Inari offered. He thought about it. "Either that or a really big tree. I never asked."

The Zipsum wasn't really sure how to take that. "Uh, right. So Inari, you from around here?"

The woods were sparse here, and a bit further east the land began to rise into the rocky highlands of Gogajin territory.

Inari kept walking, and the Zipsum followed along behind him as they talked. "Me?" Inari asked. "No. No, just passing through. I'm on a quest. Supposed to gather up pieces of the lost music for Elder Winter." He never had managed to make it back to the Grand Chantry. Too many eyeless Zipsum. He'd been traveling ever since, and he'd seen things since then that had made him wonder what exactly was going on in the world.

"Lost music, huh? How's that workin' out for you?" The Zipsum didn't give him time to answer, but immediately went on. "Listen, Inari, I don't mean to sound rude, but have you seen a bunch of Gogajin running around with Cheldrun prisoners?"

Inari looked perplexed. "Gogajin with Cheldrun prisoners? Well... yes. But I don't think they were prisoners. Looked more like refugees, I think. They didn't seem too unhappy about being with the Gogajin, either."

The Zipsum brightened up at that considerably. "You've seen them? Really? You're the man, Inari. You are so the man. The man? That's you."

It occurred to Inari then that the zipsum's pupils were abnormally large, and his eyes bloodshot. What could that mean? Huh. "Uh, thanks?"

"No, thank you. Now, can you show me where you saw them? It's really important, Inari. I need to find them. I'm supposed to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get into trouble."

"I guess I could show you," Inari said, now fairly certain that something was wrong. The Zipsum seemed too hyper, even for a Zipsum. He hadn't stopped fidgeting since he'd walked up, and his eyes were more intense than they should be, the pupils absolutely, fully dilated. "What did you say your name was?"

The Zipsum grinned good naturedly. "Tricks. Tricks the Wind. Nice to meet you."

-----------------

"Look around, Keena. What's happening is more than just troubles. There's a change in the air, and not one for the better. Ye kenne hit too, I wist. Ye've heard from the Griolsa clan, heard what's happened. Ben Hamor's been visited by the gods! There's eyeless demons takin' over zipsum bodies, and Cheldrun bodies too, and I'm not so blind as to miss that Goshi has sent eyeless monsters just as often as they've sent their smoke-puff men, and a Zipsum messenger from the Grand Chantry what arrived the other day said that there's huge demons fightin' heroes of Karia all over the damn place. This isn't something we can run away from, and I'd be no Gogajin if I tried!"

Grim looked out across the crowd, and he raised his voice. "This is bigger than any of us, but it's not so big that we can't do somethin' about it. There's to be a fight, and it's to be at Stardown, and it's lookin' to be the biggest thing we've seen since the night of bonfire skies. Sons, daughters of Karia, we are Gogajin! And if we don't unite, if we don't take a stand against these Goshi bastards, then we might as well just slink away into the hills and wait to die, because we'll none of us deserve to be called Gogajin ever again, and we will never, ever be free of those bastards. Some of us may die, but at least we'll die free, with our own two feet on the ground, and fightin' for each other, and for Karia! Are you with me!"

A roar erupted from the vast crowd of Gogajin all around them at that, a terrible thunderous roar that utterly drowned out whatever response Keena might have tried to make. For a long moment the forty five clan heads stared at one another, uncertain exactly what to do. Then, after a good five minutes of shouting, the crowd began to die down, until finally those in the center could be heard again.

In the end, they had only one response. In the end, there was really nothing else to say: "You're a crazy bastard, Grim," Keena said, and then grinned widely, "But I'm with ye." And then, one after the other, the other clan heads each pledged themselves to the cause, and cacophony erupted in the crowd once more as Gogajin shouted, cheered, banged drums, banged stones, banged each other's heads, and made ready to march to war.

------------------

"That's a nice gun," Inari said as he led Tricks the Wind up the rocky slope towards Gogajin country. He'd picked up a walking stick somewhere along the way. It was just the right size, too. Very quarterstaffy. Idly, Inari wondered if he had just coined a new word.

Tricks grinned. "Thanks. Haven't met many Prill who know what a gun is. You been around the Cheldrun?"

"Some," Inari replied, watching Tricks warily out of the corner of his eye. He no longer had any intention of leading the Zipsum to the Gogajin, but he knew it would be very, very difficult to lose him. Scratch that. Losing a Zipsum that wanted to follow you was damn near impossible. And by 'near,' Inari meant 'completely.' "I found a fragment of a song in one of their cities. Kaberra was the name, I think."

Tricks nodded, and then looked like he was growing impatient. "Look, Inari, are you sure this is the way the Gogajin..."

Tricks trailed off as the roar of a vast, vast, vast crowd erupted from not too far away, and both he and Inari stared as a huge column of Gogajin crested the top of the hill and began marching down it.

More.

More.

More.

One hundred.
Two hundred.
Five hundred.
A thousand.
More.

Inari lost count.

Wagons were pulled by Gogajin in donkey form, laden down with supplies. Men, women, a small contingent of maybe a hundred Cheldrun, more Gogajin, even more Gogajin.

An army.

He stared in awe as they marched, and Tricks stared, too, his jaw dropped open, though for different reasons.

The Gogajin were on the move.

"... went?" Tricks finished.

That was when Inari lifted his quarterstaffy walking stick, and bashed Tricks over the back of the head as hard as he could. The Zipsum went out like a light.

Inari breathed a sigh of relief. He scooped up the furry little body of Tricks the Wind and headed over to figure out who was in charge. Zipsum were a pain in the ass to keep prisoner. He knew that from experience. Hopefully, the Gogajin would have some rope. Lots and lots of rope.

And as it turns out, they did. More than enough for both the suspicious, drug-addled Zipsum and for the troublesome Prill prankster what had been causing trouble with the local villages over the last few weeks. A few minutes later, Inari found himself bound hand and foot in the back of one of the Gogajin wagons, with the unconscious form of Tricks the Wind bound securely a foot away, and the Gogajin army marching towards the western horizon.

"Well," Inari said, "This sucks."

Episode 28: Go Down Moses

2008-03-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

First Minds.

First Minds, all watching me with those eyes so much like mine, so much like Nero's. I want to rush forward and embrace them all. I want to tell them everything. I want this moment, this culmination to last forever. I want to hold them still while Amaterasu devours them, and laugh while they die.

Rei, tasty-tasty-tasty white-rock ooooh let me out mana mana manamanamana tasty mana-beings and I will share with you, oh yes, if you let me out to feed I am generous and will give you lovely bits of mana...

I sometimes wonder how I ever got by without Amaterasu-chan. They're all watching me now. "You went on ahead," The One Who Bridges The Gap says. "Tell us of your time on the planet. How long have you been here? Did you come of your own free will, or were you called?"

"Many, many years," I reply. "I was called to this place by the meddling of a man named Inase Spark. A man who meddled overmuch with the Stone That Shines to the Stars."

One of the First Minds looks to the One Who Bridges The Gap, and I know that I have been discovered.

"Inase Spark," The One Who Bridges the Gap replies, "That makes sense. And you are aware of our decision? About the question?"

He knows. He knows. He knows. I don't care. I stand my ground. "Decision?"

"Yes. Made after great deliberation by the conclave."

He explains. He explains that they sought a way to halt the unraveling by controlled consumption, but it was not enough. It delayed the process of the unraveling, but did not halt it. He explains that the conclave decided that if they were to cease to be, then they would not cease before the Question had come to a satisfactory answer, and the only satisfactory answer would be one of their own choosing: 'No.'

Mikomi, Mikomi, Reikomi, Mikorei... it looks so tasty, all that white-rock, all that mana, oh please let me out. I'll give you a present! Mana! You like mana, don't you Rei? I know you do. You like it just as much as I do, and look at all of it sitting there in that whiterock and in those scrumptious, scrumptious Firsty-Minds, oh let me out, please, please, please...

Is this what it feels like to go mad? No. Moses and Kiyoshi think I'm crazy, but I'm not. Ama-chan keeps me sane. That's her gift to me. Her thoughts shine like the sun, and now, so do mine. Wonderful, burning thoughts like sunbeams searing through meat and bone...

"Some of us opposed the answering of the question on our own. They called it self-indulgent. We have... silenced them. Destroyed them. There are none of us who are not Resistors, now. No tools of the All who are not Resistors can be allowed to exist. But you know this."

I nod, playing along, although both of us know that it's only that. I wonder why he hasn't tried to kill me, and I can only suppose that he's curious about... me. About a hybrid. Half Cheldrun, half First Mind? ... I don't know what to think of that. I don't feel divided into halves. I feel like me.

I feel like you, too.

Thanks, Ama-chan.

"I have encountered the tools of the All native to this world. The Dusk Sages," I say.

"Ah, then you have destroyed them?"

I nod. "That is a fair assessment."

He looks at me for a long moment. "... Good. If that's so, then the DisLocators should stop working, but perhaps they have outlived their usefulness."

It is only sheer force of will that prevents me from visibly reacting to that statement. My thoughts race. I had no idea. No idea. But looking back at it now, it's so obvious, so very obvious...

What's obvious is that you should let me out, Rei-chan. Rei-chan Rei-chan Mikomikomiko-chan, Rei-chan Rei-chan Mik0mikomiko-chan... Deliciousness, deliciousness...

I swallow once before I trust my voice to continue. "And what of the Kyo-TeeShee?" At his confused look, I explain: "The Oni of the Dusk Sages."

"Irrelevant. Ultimately, they will serve our ends, whether they know it or not."

"I see."

He looks at me with a horribly seeing sort of gaze, then, and he says, "One Who Hopes, you will fulfill your part in the conjunction that is to come, yes?"

I feel a peculiar sense of crawling within my skin, and I barely repress a shudder. "What would you have me do?" I ask.

"The life of Karia will attempt a meeting: a misguided meeting. You have lived among them. They think you one of them. You must ensure that the Answers to the Question fizzle out before the grand conjunction can occur."

"... I'll see what I can do," I say. My eyes stray to the White-Rock.

Tasty, tasty, and I promise to share!

He nods, and the others seem satisfied.

"If the kyo-teeshee will ultimately serve your goals regardless of what they will," I say, summoning forth Ama-chan as a primal fire, "Then maybe we should let them get to it."

Ama-chan, feed.

I attempt to teleport.

Nothing.

Amaterasu surges towards the White-Rock, but even as she moves, the Dusk Sages simply reach up their hands, and chunks of her break off and flow into them, and she shrieks in agony. For a long tortured moment I see her, my other self, writhing in agony being torn to pieces as the First Minds feed on her. In a panic, I draw her back to me, and she flows into a corner of my mind and into my arms, gibbering and weeping, and her pain staggers me.

"You should go now," The One Who Bridges the Gap tells me, looking at me disapprovingly.

I nod, barely containing my wrath, my anger, my hatred for these beings. THEY HURT AMA-CHAN. "You'll have to forgive her. She's a bit... impetuous." I meet The One Who Bridges the Gap's gaze. "I'll see you again," I say.

"Perhaps. If you are not unraveled before then."

I teleport, and for a moment it catches... and then I slip through, as though I had only left because they allowed it.

It rankles. First Minds, how it rankles... hah! I can't swear by them anymore. My destination... my destination is the only place I know of where they might be able to help Ama-chan:
The Grand Chantry.

Even as I vanish in a puff of smoke, I wonder how deep their influence goes, how much is my will and how much theirs, and whether my connection to them might be the doom of us all.

--------------

*Teleport*

--------------

It's briefly disorienting, suddenly being elsewhere. All at once, I am in the central plaza of the Grand Chantry, nevergems gleaming brilliantly all around, the noises of the Prill city ring loudly in my ears. They do not react well to the sight of someone appearing in a whirl of smoke. The alarm is sounded almost immediately. Songs of alarm, songs of warning, songs of protection, songs of destruction. The latter are aimed at me, I suppose.

Amaterasu's pain snaps me out of my daze, and I call out, "I mean no harm! I need help! I need to see Elder Moon!"

After a few tense moments, a confused voice calls out. "Rei?"

I look up, and familiarity hits me like a physical blow. For a moment I don't understand what I'm seeing, and then... "Ramora?" I ask.

People are staring, and Amaterasu is bleeding a thin rainbow coloured liquid. Her right arm is gone, and there are large chunks missing from her abdomen. My heart clenches.

"Rei, what are you doing here? We heard that you had all died!"

I look up. For the briefest of moments I see Mokuzai all in bits and pieces before me. "We're alive. We were on the Wandering Star."

Ramora breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank the Sages for that. You have to tell Elder Moon. She's been in a panic for days, saying that Elder Mokuzai is dead!"

Pain. For a moment I'm not sure if it's mine or Amaterasu's. Maybe it doesn't matter. I look away. "... Mokuzai is dead," I reply.

He staggers visibly, going absolutely pale.

"I need to see Elder Moon," I say.

The meeting doesn't go well. I try, but Moon is full of grief and pain. Her mate is dead, and it is a strange word. The strangeness of the word does not make him less dead. She will not help Amaterasu. She says that the war will never end, that there is no peace.

I try to explain. I try to tell her about how even if the war will never end, it's still worthwhile to fight to preserve today, and the next day. That it's still worth fighting, for one another.

She tells me not to return unless it's with Mokuzai's body.

I leave her to her grief.

--------------

*Teleport*

--------------

The world lurches, and all at once I am in the glade outside of the Grand Chantry where Inari's Grandmother once stood. The glade still shows signs of Asamu-Oni's influence. Grass grows only from those few patches of ground that avoided his touch, and the fallen tree which still dominates much of the glade is a chalky gray colour, like ashes. I smell decay.

Amaterasu's pain still hovers in the back of my mind, and I will need to teleport again today. A deer trail runs across the edge of the glade, and I notice fresh droppings alongside it. I examine the area for a few moments, and then set out westward. Five minutes later, I come across a sickly hart lying on its side and panting for breath, it antlers digging deep furrows in the earth.

My psychic knife flickers to life.

It only takes two strikes. Two strikes, and I am full of energy again. It feels good, and I feel vaguely unsettled about that.

As I walk back towards the clearing, I offer Ama-chan some mana, which she eats greedily. It seems to go a long way towards healing her. Then I try to teleport back to the Sennin... and nothing happens. There's a hollow sense in my head, and I can't account for it.

I sit down and think for a moment. If they're no longer on the Wandering Star, then where would they be?

Una... probably wouldn't care where they went. The psychological stress factors caused by a continuous depressed state seem to have drained her volition.

High Dive... probably wouldn't care where they went, since she's happy as long as she has candy and things to kill.

Kiyoshi... maybe to visit his family in Matamos?

Moses...

My eyes widen, and I distinctly recall him having said that he needed to go to Geneva Prime and speak with Katashi Blade. "He wouldn't..." I whisper.

He would. That sounds like exactly the sort of thing he would do.

I rise to my feet and reabsorb Amaterasu for the journey, and then I teleport.
Home.

--------------

*Teleport*

--------------

Home.

My room materializes around me, and for a moment it is just as I left it, shielded bed in the center, a desk off to the side, a dresser with two week's worth of clothing it it in the far corner, cameras lining the walls.

But it's not real. It's less than a memory. An echo of what was. The distant past, and not even compelling enough to seem like more than the memory of an unpleasant dream. My knife flickers to life on my hand, and its pink glow displays the truth of the room. The desk is gone. The dresser is gone. The bed is gone. The cameras are gone. Dust covers the bare floor, and not even force or energy flow through the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Empty. Less than a memory.

I open a panel next to the door and hit the manual release for the door's magnetic clamp. It pops open with a faint hiss, and I slip out into the greater complex.

Empty. Dark. Dusty. Nothing except for me and my psychic knife.

And then Ama-chan is with me, shining, illuminating the hallway, and I'm no longer alone. It's a strange thing to have company here. It's like... having another Aimi, maybe. Ama-chan isn't very much like Aimi, though. Though I suppose they do both kill people spectacularly. I find myself wondering where Malicious is in all this, whether she's working for Katashi Blade as well, or escaped, or dead, or... I don't know why that would bother me. I hate her.

I walk past the corridor where Malicious mind-blasted me for 'being difficult,' and I can almost feel the pain of it all over again.

"I'm hungry," Amaterasu says as we walk.

I roll my eyes. "You're always hungry."

"Mana?" she asks, a hopeful look on her face. And then there is a flicker of... I don't know. Something. I don't know what she's thinking. "Onee-san, please?"

I stop in my tracks and stare at the little girl walking next to me. Onee-san.
Older sister.

It makes me... happy?

"Maybe later," I say fondly. "When we find Moses, I might need you to shine for me, Ama-chan. If I give you some mana, can you do that?"

She nods enthusiastically. "Mana mana mana-mana-mana," she sing-songs, and initiates a series of movements which I do not immediately recognize. A moment later, I realize that she is dancing. Dancing and... singing? I don't catch all of the lyrics, but it's a nonsense song about how tasty mana is, and how 'her Onee-san' gives her mana when she's hungry.'

I raise an eyebrow. Singing and dancing. I've heard of this, even seen the Gogajin do it during our stay with them, but it seems oddly out of place to see Ama-chan doing it. I find myself wondering exactly how much is left of the Dusk Sage that she was before she became a Kyo-TeeShee.

It is then that I notice a door ajar close at hand - the only door in the whole complex that I've found ajar. I turn.

Nero's room. My eyes widen ever so slightly, and I feel that old familiar mixture of emotional responses. Fear. Hatred. Familial affection. Rage. I see the boogeyman - the Enemy - hiding under my bed. I see the monster in the closet. I see the Jevuum Cheldrun-Eater that Sever and Stitch used to tell frightening stories about when we were younger. And all of these figures share one thing in common: They all have Nero's eyes.

I push the door fully open, and it clanks loudly against the blank wall within.

Empty. Sterilized. Nothing, except...
Except for the First Mind runes carved into the blank, empty walls, ceiling, and floor.

How long has this been going on, I wonder? How long has Nero known about this? He'd always seemed wrong, but when did it really begin for him? I wonder...

I turn away from his room and head for the exit, and Ama-chan follows just behind me.

--------------

I step into the tunnel system beneath Geneva Prime, and it is silent. At first.

It begins as whispers in the back of my skull. Just whispers. Whisperwhisperwhisper. I put a hand to my forehead, and Ama-chan looks at me questioningly.

"It's nothing," I say.

She nods. "Let's go somewhere where there's mana," she says.

I shake my head and call her back into me. She vanishes in a swirl of fire.

Her own thoughts like the sun join the whispers in my mind. I continue moving forward, and all at once the whispers crescendo into a roar that drowns out everything.

Everything.

I... I is a category mistake. We are the underground market. We are Samophlange Jack, and Ishmael, and Yamamoto Eiko of the Jade Falcon clan, and Tamaguchi Unryu of the Ruby Hawk clan, and the beggar on the street who lost everything when Goshi deposed the government, and the purveyor of knick-knacks who hates his job, and the courtesan living in luxury when her whole family fell into ruin now accompanying a minor Goshi executive to a hotel on the other side of the city, and the message boy whose mother warned him to be very careful in the underground, and the father showing his chidren the underground market, and the nobleman pretending to be a biomade buying a rifle from a gun shop, and the pregnant Allskin woman - Aiko - making her way home after a long day working as a barmaid, and the young thief whose hand was even now coming near the being that bore the function of the underground market, but he sees that she is in pain, and falls to her knees, and she has a psychic gauntlet, and that's bad news so he draws back and goes the other way... and... and... and... and...
‘God that woman is hot. I would do her again and again.’
‘I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that.’
‘I want an ice cream cone.’
‘I hate this job.’
‘I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU!’
‘Maybe I should just tell him off.’
‘Here’s how to...’
‘I will always love you.’
'Why did I ever decide it was a good idea to have a baby?'
‘I want...’
‘I wonder what would happen if I cut my finger off. I guess I wouldn't have a finger.’
‘That’s a big...’
'Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers.'
‘It’s the thing you hate the most.’
‘I’m getting old. Old and fat. Fat and bald and old. I hate my life. I hate my job. I hate my stupid, fat, bald, old face.’
‘Looks like you gained a few pounds, you cow.’
'Mama said be careful. I mustn't talk to strangers.'
‘Do you often sing or whistle just for fun? What does that mean?’
‘It’s the thing you hate the most.’
‘I want...’
‘I HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU...’
‘I should tell her how I feel. Even if she doesn’t like me, she might still be willing to do me.’
‘Old, fat, bald, stupid... Age is against me. The world is against me. The children here are lucky. They’re young. Not like me.'
‘Oh God. I knew this was going to happen.’
'Why won't daddy buy me an ice cream? I WANT AN ICE CREAM!'
and...
and...
and...
and...
and...
and I come to my senses with a shocking kind of suddenness.

I am standing at the entrance to the underground market, and the long missed background hum of the minds of everyone around me buzzes comfortably in the back of my awareness. I realize with a start that it has been months since I had been in the presence of more than seventeen Cheldrun minds simultaneously, and I brush my hair out of my eyes and move on.

'Oh shit, isn't that Rei?'

The thought is faint but clear, and I immediately turn towards the mind from whence it came.

There.

I follow the figure around the corner, and...
I blink. She looks familiar, somehow.

... "Terry?" I ask. Terry the Canary. The mechified who was with the UMA... so long ago.

She stares at me in horror, and I am her. Oh First Minds this is bad I can't be seen with her with Rei I already told them everything and they'll think I'm with the UMA! Oh, First minds this is bad, oh fuck, I can't be seen with her...!

No. I know who I am and what I want, at least for now. I am Rei, and I want to save Moses from his own bad judgment, his own poor strategic planning.

"I'll let you be on your way on two conditions, Terry. First, answer my questions. Second, forget you ever saw me. Is this an acceptable arrangement?"

She nods. "What are you doing here, Rei?" she asks, and in her head, she is screaming.

"Following Moses," I say. "Here to be a hero."

At the mention of Moses, her thoughts go into overdrive panic-mode. "You're way, way too late," she says. "Where were you when Goshi was taking over? You ran away. You and the others. You left us here."

"It's never too late, Terry," I say. "The time to be a hero is always 'now.'"

Her thoughts turn bitter. 'Yeah right, bitch. If you were really a hero, you'd do something about Mickey and the Surgeon.' And I see them both. Mickey, driven nearly mad by Nero's psychic thumb print. The Surgeon, black-listed and destitute.

I consider the two alternatives. The Surgeon would be more tactically useful, and I might actually be able to help him: I don't know if I can do anything for Mickey. "Where's the Surgeon?" I ask.

She holds up a brown paper bag and thinks of his address. "I was just on my way to take him some lunch before I ran into you," she says. She doesn't think of me as 'Rei' in her mind. She thinks of me as 'Assassin bitch.'

I hold out my hand. "Give me the lunch, and I'll take it to him," I say.

She looks at me incredulously for a moment, but she does hand me the lunch.

"Goodbye," I say. I vanish, and I have just enough time to see her eyes widen in surprise before the Dislocation takes me to a small, dirty tenement in the middle of the Mechified slums. Goshi Tower looms large in the distance, and I hear the faint sound of explosions echoing off from somewhere, and smoke rising from... is that a rail line? I shake my head and enter the tenament.
He's at the bottom floor, and he is surprised to see me. His skills are being wasted here, and I tell him so, but he says that he's out of luck: he's been blacklisted. I think about the situation for a moment, and then I tell him the tactical situation: Moses is here.

He nearly chokes on the water he's drinking.

"He's here to kill Katashi Blade, but he's walking into an ambush. I will not allow Moses to die, Surgeon. It will not happen. In exchange for your assistance in saving him, we will take you with us. We can use a good medic, and we have both the means and the will to put your skills to good use."

He thinks it over for a moment, and then gives his mental assent. "What do you need?" he asks.

"Explosives. Lots of explosives."

He looks around at his run down, empty shop, then glances at me. "Well, I don't have that, but I do have something that might be helpful." He moves over to a curtain covering a hole in the wall at the back of the shop and pulls it aside. "Meet the Bronze god."

He steps out from behind the curtain, a... gogajin... mechified? His skin is puckered and horrifically scarred, and his mechanical parts are made out of bronze, but I still recognize the figure that steps forward.

It's not explosives, but it will do.

"Hello, Balder," I say in his own language.

He raises an eyebrow, looking me up and down. "Well, fuck me!" he says incredulously.

"No."

He laughs.

--------------

*Teleport*

--------------

Ten minutes later, after I've sent the Surgeon to the rendevous point outside the city and explained the situation to Balder and successfully enlisted his aid in mounting a rescue operation for Moses, we appear two floors short of the topmost floor of Goshi tower, and Balder immediately looks around for enemies. There are none. There is only the voice of an office lady assuring her lover over a comm-device that she's perfectly safe this high up.

Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi's thoughts. Kiyoshi's mind. In the elevator. Going up. Kiyoshi and Moses and... someone I don't recognize. Someone whose thoughts are cold and harsh and unwelcoming. Hurricane? No, she's dead. Rain. Going to see the Executor...

Oh hell.

The office lady notices us just as we are boarding the elevator. I tell her to get out of the building as fast as she can, and don't wait to see if she does it. The elevator only goes up one more floor. Damn. Not the right lift. We go up.

The doors open, and...

Una?

High Dive?

There they are, Una pacing back and forth in front of the lift, High Dive sitting in a corner in squirrel-form eating a whole bowl of candy.

For a moment, we all just stare at each other. Then Una asks, "Rei?"

There is a note of distrust in her voice that was not there before. It it... disconcerting.

"I brought Balder," I say as I step out of the elevator. "Why are you here, Una? Why aren't you up there with Kiyoshi and Moses?"

She looks suspicious. Is she... angry at me? Maybe. I can't tell. Karians are hard to read. "We're the backup," Una says. "We're supposed to go in if things get bad."

"Things are bad," I tell her. Things are very, very bad. I will not allow Moses to die. Not like this. Not at the hands of one of THEM.

"What do you mean?" Una asks.

" Katashi Blade is a First Mind."

Emo Champion: The Last of Her Kind

2008-03-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

The Emo Champion Award goes to the character who most players agree provided the most emotional drama through roleplaying through the entire season. This prestigious award is accompanied not only by the trophy emblem (right), but by 5, count them 5, of the coveted green Never Gems. The honored recipient of the third ever Emo Champion Award is Una, the saddest character ever.

Bamuna of the Reikoku clan is the saddest character ever. She wins this award because she is the saddest character ever. If you need proof, read this.

She started the campaign as a lonely, slightly crazed and bloodthirsty Vorax searching for others of her kind. The first other Vorax she found became the first eyeless of the campaign. The next Vorax went crazy, starved himself and died in her arms. Then she found a flight of dozens of other Vorax only to learn that they were the last Vorax on Karia and they were bent on suicide. At the start of this season she made her break with the Last Flight, desperately hoping it wouldn't come to fruition, but they did at last immolate themselves above Omexon before turning into an Oni and a flock of eyeless in front of her.

When preparing for my interview with Una I made sure to bring four boxes of tissue.

Everyone in the group treats the subject of Una's situation with great tenderness.

"I don't really know what it would be like to be the last one..." Moses said.

Kiyoshi nodded somberly, "None of us do, but..."

"but it must suck, because she's always crying!" High-Dive interrupted.

Kiyoshi scowled, "I was going to say, but she has been incredibly courageous, fighting on like this..."

"And her tears have magical healing powers," chirped the squirrel.

"... many others would have given up..."

"But I'm glad she didn't because she gives the best belly-rubs!"

(At this point Kiyoshi chased High-Dive from the room).

Rei tried to get us back on topic, "Look, Una has experienced, in a way, what we're all facing - extinction. Una knows better than any of us the cost if the Enemy wins, which is why she keeps fighting, I think."

Everyone nodded and fell silent for a bit then.

When Una walked in she saw everyone sitting in silence and hesitated, "Why is everyone looking so glum? Did someone die?"

Awkward looks were exchanged for a second.

"Oh no! It's Kiyoshi isn't! I knew I wouldn't be able to save him!" the tears came rushing right out...

As everyone jumped to correct her mistaken assumption I thought to myself - this is why she is our Emo Champion. She is Una, the last of her kind.

Narrator's Best Friend: The Machine God's Messenger

2008-03-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

The Narrator's Best Friend Award goes to the character who most players agree consistently added great stuff to the story be it with NPC's or character choices through the entire season. This prestigious award is accompanied not only by the trophy emblem (right), but by 5, count them 5, of the coveted blue Never Gems. For the first time in history we have a draw in the voting, meaning this award will go to two characters. The second of the two honored recipients of the third ever Narrator's Best Friend Award is Moses, the metal messiah.

There are two ways that one can potentially win this seasonal Award. Rei already demonstrated how it can be done by having an in-depth backstory that influences the plot, and a messed up psyche that creates dramatic moments in the game. In Moses' case, his backstory was pretty simple and his psyche is perhaps the healthiest in the bunch. The other way to win this award, then is to be a straight-forward mover and shaker when it comes to determining what happens in-game. Moses is definitely that. Early in this season it was his connection with the Rusty Nail Rogues that set up several sessions worth of adventure. It was partially his drive to follow the instructions in his dream that took the party across the ocean, and he was the one at the end who urged the return to Geneva Prime. The arc of this story has a great big Moses shaped thumb-print on it.

Which is why I was so excited to talk to him about what it was like to be an architect of world-changing events...

"Um, I don't know much about that," he modestly replied.

He'd been similarly deferent last time I interviewed him. Looking at his shiny new chassis, and foxy bitch, I knew better than to accept the humble act this time around.

Una had more to say on the subject, "Oh, Moses? He's a miracle worker. Literally, there have been more than one or two situations where we wouldn't have gotten out if it weren't for him."

Rei emphatically agreed, "I would follow Moses to the end of the world - and I have. Even off the world, come to think of it."

And his partner Zipporah? "He thinks he's following some kind of Machine God, but I say the Machine God is him!"

There was some awkward silence after that last part and Moses quickly discovered he had something to do in another room.

As usual Kiyoshi was the one to get things back to a serious tone. "Moses is wise to keep humble. We're not Gods - that's what our Kyo Tee Shee want us to think. We are servants, as for Moses, maybe he's a messenger. He certainly has a message for Katashi Blade and I intend to hear him deliver it."

There you have it - Moses: the Machine God's Messenger, and certainly the Narrator's Best Friend.

Narrator's Best Friend: The Girl With First Mind Eyes

2008-03-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

The Narrator's Best Friend Award goes to the character who most players agree consistently added great stuff to the story be it with NPC's or character choices through the entire season. This prestigious award is accompanied not only by the trophy emblem (right), but by 5, count them 5, of the coveted blue Never Gems. For the first time in history we have a draw in the voting, meaning this award will go to two characters. The first of the two honored recipients of the third ever Narrator's Best Friend Award is Rei, the psionic scion.

The red-eyed, leather-clad assassin easily belongs in this category because of the degree to which her backstory has always been out front. From the very first episode of the first season, clashes with Rei's family have provided interest and drama to the storyline, but in this season Rei really popped out. She met her creator, Inase Spark, with whom she'd been interacting via his journal during the second season. Her sister Aimi provided some of the most intense party conflicts of the season, and Rei herself heightened the party drama with her lies to Kiyoshi and eventual apparent betrayal of the party to the First Minds. I was thrilled to get to chat with Rei behind-the-scenes about her effect on the plot.

"I figure that every party has to have its 'troubled' character," she confided to me while sampling some of the vegetarian finger food our caterers provided. "What could be more troubled than a girl with a tenuous psychological hold on her sense of self who was a former assassin with nebulous ties to our enemies? If that isn't bad enough I make a point of defending my family even when they do things that are pretty horrible, and of course there is the fact that I am made with genetic material taken from the cosmic Enemy themselves. You'd have to try pretty hard to come up with someone more messed up than me."

Undoubtedly. But for all her unique qualities Rei can be remarkably humble.

"I don't really like my psychoses, however grand, to take center stage in the campaign too often. I mean, I'm quite happy just to make my amoral judgments in silence and get things done quietly - that's the way we assassins do things."

Unfortunately for Rei, her morality keeps getting dragged out into the spotlight by her party members who seem to think it's a big deal who she does and doesn't kill, and how. Moses in particular makes an issue of it.

"Rei is sometimes too much like her Kyo Tee Shee," he said. "Fortunately she is a little easier to dissuade from doing really horrible things, but you have to keep a lookout."

"Indeed," Kiyoshi readily agreed, "I have been worried for some time now about her reliability. Keibatsu hungers after her like the Enemy, she can teleport like the Hei-Shi, and she apparently is capable of masquerading as a First Mind. There are some heavy questions she will have to answer soon."

It may make some of her friends uncomfortable, but in terms of adding to the excitement of the story there can be no question that the ambiguities surrounding Rei are an asset.

"It's not like she's the only one in our group who has her dark moments," Una said by way of explanation.

I thought that summed it up well. The dark moments are the reason that Rei is one of our Narrator's Best Friends, and why everyone pays attention to the girl with First Mind eyes.

Kick-Ass Queen: A Ball of Fur and Fury

2008-03-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Kick-Ass Queen Award goes to the character who most players agree did the most devastation in the coolest way through the entire season. This prestigious award is accompanied not only by the trophy emblem (right), but by 5, count them 5, of the coveted red Never Gems. The honored recipient of the third ever Kick-Ass Queen Award is High-Dive Bludgeon, the deadliest squirrel ever to crack a nut.

I admit that when I was given this assignment I almost shit myself. It is an honor to get to interview the recipients of these awards, but High-Dive Bludgeon has a bit of a reputation. Being a mere 200 point NPC I was extremely nervous about the prospect of coming face to face with the mammal who put the wild in the word... um, wild. If half of the reports are true, then she is personally responsible for some radical, Oni-scale destruction. So I trembled more than a little when I was told that her agent agreed to the interview.

What can I say about High-Dive? She is a study in extremes. When she is active she is a metabolic force of nature. She moves so fast that she shatters the sound barrier. When she is calm, such as when a companion is rubbing her tummy, then she is like a limp towel. Incidentally, this entire interview took place in the context of an extended tummy-rub. When I tried speaking to her without the manual assist, her answers came back in speech too rapid to be comprehensible, though her close friends do a decent job of interpreting.

"Our relationship with High-Dive," Kiyoshi said cautiously, "is what I would describe as... explosive."

I encouraged him to continue.

"What I mean is, things in High-Dive's vicinity tend to explode. So far those things have not included any party members, so we keep her around."

"Plus," Moses added, "how are you gonna stop her?"

An apt point.

Rei was much more positive about her furry companion. "High-Dive's aggressive tendencies are very useful if carefully encouraged against the right targets. Personally, I consider her presence in our party as something akin to possessing a tactical nuke. When other people know you have one they tend to surrender really fast."

Una had been handed the tonic squirrel subject by this time to continue the rub-fest, so I asked her what she thought of the only other surviving Karian in the group. I was looking for the human interest angle on the story so I encouraged Una, a tragic figure herself, to give me some insight into the troubled psyche of this little squirrel that might explain her violent tendencies.

Una thought for a moment, "Nah, High-Dive just likes to blow shit up."

As for High-Dive herself, the only words she had for this interviewer were, "Did you bring me candy?"

An enigma? Or just one violent little rodent? Either way she is this season's Kick-Ass Queen. She is High-Dive Bludgeon: a ball of fur and fury.

One Small Answer

2008-03-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

Quietly, Moses wakes up Zipporah early. She pops awake immediately with a little gasp and her hand goes out to him. He places it in his.

"Morning."

She blinks the last wisp of bleariness out of her eyes. "You've got that look."

He nods. "Yeah, I've got that look."

She sits ups. Now that she's awake, she's sort of got that look too.

Its so strange to be whole. To be made whole. Again. Broken and put back together by Una's tears. Which...always, she's got more of them. Healing tears. There's something there. But, as she said, he has that look.

"I told you about the Fire. As much as I understood, at least. And now we're here. We came here...I thought we were all dead. But then we're floating in the Bay, with Geneva Minor on the horizon...it has to be. I have to be here because of what the Fire told me. What the...what the Name told me." She nods. "And that means I have to go back to the city. I have to go back...where so many people died, and where everyone is going to want to kill me. I...I abandoned them, and things...got worse for them. I know it. I can try to tell them that it had to happen, that...that so much has happened since, that if I hadn't left, I wouldn't be here now, with the tiniest bit of hope that I can free them...that they'd catch me eventually, that...that I wouldn't have met you." He looks at her, then looks down, trying not to get derailed.

"I can tell them that, but I'll understand if they don't listen. And I have to...somehow...convince them to go...where the stars will fall. I don't even know where that is! I'm just hoping that...that I'll know, somehow, that it'll hit me, or else, we'll just be wandering around. That is, if anyone comes with me. That is, if...if I survive...meeting Katashi Blade.

He pauses. "I've been thinking a lot about him. I don't know hardly anything about him, but he's the head of Goshi. So I think about the Hei Shi, and how they can teleport now, and how - how they've conquered everything, it seems like. How there were Hei Shi on the Wandering Star, so he knows it's there, probably knows more than we do about the whole thing.

"I think about...someone who would be able to do all of that. Someone with that kind of...will. Someone who isn't happy until he has everything. Behind all of the evil that Goshi has done. And now I have to walk into his tower, and tell him, let the Mechified go. Let my people go. He's going to -"

She places a single finger over his lips, and waits until he looks up at her.

"Moses, I've been listening this whole time. I've heard all that you've heard for months now. I've spoken to the Dusk Sages, watched them die, watched you bind them. I've been to the darkness outside Karia, I've seen...horrible things, and wonderful things - the Emerald Isle, the bottom of the ocean!

"Nothing - nothing! - in what I've heard has made me think that this Blade can stop you. Do you know why?" Moses shakes his head. Now she gets to talk about why she's got that look. "Because of the Question. I already know the answer. Don't you? The question is life, and the answer is yes. The answer is yes. It has to be yes. First, because -" she looks away "because if its no, then all we do is for nothing, and everything will come to nothing, and there will be no one to remember it, to even cry over it. No one even to mourn. If the answer is no, then we're free, because the end will come, and then nothing after. And..."

"The...the other reason?"

She looks back to him, is blushing furiously. "Well, um. I." She bites her lip and takes his hand from around hers and places it low on her belly. Then gives him that look.

She counts to three while Moses looks at her, at his hand, then his eyes go wide.

She nods a small nod. "Yes."

Into The Final Season...

2008-03-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

The Third Season has come to an end and the Heroes of Karia Vitalus Awards Ceremony has been held.

In the category of Best Episode of Season Three the group once again broke gaming stereotypes by choosing an episode that contained no combat or action sequences: The Question. This episode stood out from the pack quite simply because it was the largest payoff in terms of exposition in the campaign. Questions that the party had been wanting the answers to since the beginning of the campaign were finally resolved. The Dusk Sages illuminated everyone as to the cosmic nature of the conflict they are involved in and set the party on a course which will either save everything that lives or end in disaster.

In the category of Favorite NPC of Season Three the voters were faced with a glut of choices. Many NPC's from previous seasons made appearances in this one, including early favorites like Aimi. However, the NPC who took the prize by a solid margin was one who has never actually encountered the party in-game, a testimony to the rich interweaving stories we have going on through the blog. That NPC was the unflappable Anakarix sage Jin Kalys. Using his unfailing Nine-Branch Formal Logic, Jin Kalys and his companions were able to spark a dramatic resistance in the city of Stardown with the odd combination of a First Mind artifact and the last Vorax egg on Karia. We all hope that Jin Kalys has more memorable moments in his future.

The player-characters also voted on awards for each other. The winners of these awards will be profiled in subsequent days. As we are now heading into the final season of this action-packed drama, we may not see another awards ceremony after this. Nothing remains, but to watch the exciting climax unfold...

Unlikely Alliances

2008-02-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

The Clan-Record of Kennard Fiochmahr, Tale-Teller and Lore-Keeper of the Fiochmahr Clan
Three Weeks Before Midsummer

It's not what ye are, it's what ye're willin' ta die for, that's the thing. Most Gogajin weren't willin' to die for all that much, but loved a good natured fight like they was bloody married to it. 'Course, this was anythin' but a good natured fight.

It started all at once about three weeks after Grim and the lads had tossed that underhanded mechified over the walls. There weren't no warning, no announcement of intent, no speeches, and no time to do anything but stand there like a bunch o' asses: the blue-armoured Cheldrun appeared in little wisps of smoke and started layin' waste to the clanhall right quick. Afore we even knew what hit us, three lads had blue knives buried in their throats, and one of them Cheldrun refugees had one blooming from her heart like a pretty blue flower. She dropped dead, but the lads, Sages bless 'em, they knew that they were dying, but they weren't dead yet. Each one of them plowed into the crowd of blue-armoured figures and started brawlin' like the best of em even as they bled out.

That were what bought the rest of us enough time to rally and drive the devils back. Things got heated then, and all the clan was roused to arms, and out came old Grim shouting and hollering like a madman about thieves and murderers in his house. Their popping in and out in little wisps of smoke made it a harder brawl than it should have been, but we brought them down, and those what we didn't bring down vanished for good.

When it were over, three of our gogajin lads were dead, a score more wounded, and five of the Cheldrun refugees were dead, too.

That weren't the last attack, either. They came again the next night, and the next, and soon it were clear as a Zipsum on gostberries that they would not stop until every last one of the Cheldrun refugees we'd taken in was dead. Men, women, and children. Some nights we fought them off without any losses at all. Some nights three or four guards were found dead along with a refugee or two. It went on like that for a week afore Old Grim had enough.

That's where we are now, the whole clan and our Cheldrun guests marchin' to Blackfield to air our grievances. That's what Grim called it, 'airin' our grievances.' Grim says that it's not just us, that these blue-armoured folk are raidin' all across Gogajin lands. He says he's not heard of a village or clanhold that's not been attacked at least once. I don't know if that's true or not, but I hear we're not the only clan to be attacked this way, neither - rumour has it the Griolsa clan way out near Ben Hamor took a beatin' something fierce half a year back, and the Dilseacht clan got raided a month back for their store o' Whiterock and lost fifty people in the battle.

Grim says he means to unite the clans. Some doubt him, but he's got that fire in his eyes, and I've seen that before: that there is the look of a hero.

Sages help us all.

Prelude to the End of Season Three

2008-02-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

A league under the waves, where no sunlight reaches, the Sea-Dragon people known as Sasarrans flitted from luminescent coral apartments to begin their patrols of the surface. The sacred obligation must never be permitted to lapse, even for a moment, into lackadaisical disinterest. Eternal vigilance was required of their whole people to contain the demons who create in order to consume.

Ceralon, a proud matriarch of her people, was not headed to the surface with the others. She swam with strength and purpose deeper into the coral city, headed for the sacred sanctuary, where all the matriarchs would confer. The departing patrol was a delicate rainbow of fronds, fluttering up toward the sunlight. She watched them as they went, proud of their dedication.

Ahead of her the sanctuary entrance yawned - a cavernous opening in the coral leading through twisting passages into the vast heart of the city. It was too sacred a local for common warriors, outsiders or men to enter, but even matriarchs like Ceralon felt a quickening of the heart when approaching it.

The others would want to have her wisdom concerning the strangers who passed from the East a few days ago. She had spent her whole rest-cycle contemplating the matter. It remained perplexing to her that anyone would desire to go to the Emerald Isle who was not a servant of the demons. However, she would shock the matriarchs today by declaring what she believed to be truth - the strangers were genuine. Perhaps events beyond our horizons are underway, she thought. The idea gave her shivers.

Whatever the reality, she would ask the gathered matriarchs to pray for the success of those strangers. Pray for the end of all demons everywhere. Yes, that would be a good prayer.

***

They first named it Shadowfang in the logging camps south of Geneva Prime. In a day and age when teleportation is real, communication is fast. So it was no surprise to find that news of this mysterious killer made it to all the rural outposts and logging camps between Epsis Four and Ithica. It became popular among the easily frightened Mechified laborers to blame any unexplained death on the Shadowfang. Most foremen, just shook their heads and tried to dispel unhelpful superstitions. There were all sorts of things in the jungle that could kill a man.

What was more disturbing than all the reports was the fact that Shadowfang was real and on the move. It was notoriously hard to get any reliable sightings of the beast, but members of a secretive information brokerage out of Marina had been paid quite well to keep track of it. Even they didn't learn much, but they tracked a pattern of violent killings, some by Jevumm, some with Cheldrun weapons, that appeared to be moving along the edges of wilderness toward the north. At best guesstimate it was now somewhere in the vicinity of the Wreck of the Bosporus and still moving.

Goshi had no interest, when informed of the matter. Just another sighting of the Enemy, they alleged, and used it as an argument for beefing up security. But someone on the Biomade Oversight Council was quite convinced otherwise. It appears to be some kind of Karian-Cheldrun hybrid, he wrote in the memo. We should bring it in if we can and study it for interesting genetic properties...

***

"Good Bye, my beloved Moon."

Those had been his words, carried on the wind over countless kilometers. She sang them and re-sang them in her heart and every time it was a song of such sorrow that no one could hear it without weeping. The Grand Chantry, her choir, the prophecies, Karia itself, could dissolve and become nothing for all she cared. Her love, her Mokuzai, was gone and nothing else mattered.

From the balcony of the highest tower in the Grand Chantry she nightly composed songs of rage at the heavens. She waited for the Wandering Star to rise - late as it had been doing every night recently, an omen of doom. She waited and when it came she unleashed everything within her, calling all the power of the winds, all the vastness of the sky to her obedience, begging them to tear the Wandering Star down.

Once Twilight was sent by the Elders to fetch her down since her shrieking was causing such a disturbance that people below were being sent into a panic. Twilight was nearly blown over the edge by her rage and no one had made the mistake of disturbing her mourning from that moment.

The Wandering Star winked at her malevolently from its spot just above the horizon.

"You took my mate from me," she screamed back at it. "But I swear by the Dusk Sages, by Karia, by the primal foundations of music itself that I shall outlive you! I will live to see the day that you never rise again."

Her screams echoed over the forest and the effect was satisfying, but no amount of screaming would ever close the wound in her soul.

***

Ryuunosuke did not believe he could ever hate anyone more than he hated Lord Daitokuji Ichirou. And Kiyoshi. He hated Kiyoshi and Ichirou. And the stupid First Minds. Fucking First Minds and their fucking artifacts. He hated First Mind artifacts and he especially hated Kiyoshi and Ichirou when they used their First Mind artifacts. Fuck fuck fucking hate. Like really loathe...

There was no way to describe his fight with Ichirou without using the words utter and humiliation - two words that Ryuunosuke also hated (unless they were being applied to someone else). It would have been bad enough to die in that duel, but Ichirou had allowed nothing of the sort. He systematically dismantled Ryuunosuke, broke his Katana in seven pieces, and refused to accept his surrender until he had pissed himself in front of the whole Silver Phoenix clan while begging for mercy.

Ichirou still insisted that he would face justice for all the members of the Silver Phoenix clan he had killed, especially Kiyoshi, but he refused to say precisely when that would take place. Until then Ryuunosuke had been dragged along, shackled, behind the caravan as they headed overland toward the city of Stardown. Ryuunosuke only stopped brooding on his inchoate rage when he first glimpsed the enormous purple energy dome - and then only for a moment.

They reached the city a few nights ago, entering to fanfare and celebrations. Stardown had become the hub of the resistance to Goshi almost overnight with the creation of the dome. A feat supposedly accomplished by a giant talking lizard - which just proved that the world had gone mad. Lord Daitokuji Ichirou immediately became a general in the resistance and began lending his tactical advice. From time to time he would appear in his enormous silvery Mecha with purple veins of stone all over its surface to impress the citizens and drum up support for the resistance.

Ryuunosuke thought the whole thing was absurd. He hoped Goshi would sweep in here and destroy all of these clowns with a sweep of their hand. He hated purple domes, and giant lizards, and the resistance. He hated it all. Most especially himself.

***

The silhouette of the Geneva Prime skyline receded into the distance at a very slow rate. Every last man, woman and child in this troop was a kill on sight target. So Matthew knew they couldn't draw attention to themselves. Slow and steady, that was the way to go unnoticed. So that was the way they traveled.

Looking back over the ragtag group of 65 or so individuals that were all that remained of the Cheldrun Freedom Coalition, he couldn't help but be very proud. What they were doing was terribly risky, it is true, but since all of their hideouts in the city were ferreted out there really was no place for them to go back to. Hence, they'd agreed to Matthew's proposal that they strike out overland and try to get to Stardown to join the resistance.

Matthew had plenty of worries. He worried that he was an incompetent leader. He worried that he would get all of these men and women killed pointlessly, after he had persuaded many of them to take actions which made an accommodated life impossible. He worried, more simply, that he would get lost on the way to Stardown - geography was never his strong suit. Or that they would arrive too late and Goshi would already have crushed the uprising there.

But he couldn't let his worries distract him now. There were miles to cross. There were mouths to feed. There were Hei-shi to kill. This last part was by far the easiest.

***

Deep in the slums of Geneva Prime battles continued to rage, but the war had long ago been lost. For Cog, a broken shell of a young Mechified with his first adult-sized implant, the war would never end, which meant that he would just go on losing and losing. His whole life was confined to that moment in the alley next to his collapsed tenement, weeping over the body of his mother. He could never escape it, and so he spent his time trying to take vengeance on the Goshi soldiers who brought the tenement crashing down.

His vengeance was the frustrated pointless vengeance of the impotent. He committed vandalism, or threw garbage at soldiers when their backs were turned. Once in a while he was daring enough to shout curses before running away. On most days this would just be ignored, but apparently he'd picked the wrong soldiers to fling garbage at today. They chased him down into an alley and pinned him against a brick wall. One pulled out a military knife and the other joked about practicing cybernetic surgery.

Cog closed his eyes before the pain started. He gritted his teeth, trying not to scream, but it was futile when the knife dug into his arm. They laughed as his adolescent voice cracked when he shouted.

Then, suddenly, they were dead. Cog opened his eyes to see both men with wide eyes. A 3 meter length of rebar had gone through the ear of one and out the neck of the other. They collapsed and the pain in Cog's arm decreased.

He had heard of a hero lurking in the streets of the city. The Bronze God they called him. Cog looked to the end of the alley and saw a figure retreating around the corner. Could it be him?

***

Rumors suggested that one could see the whole of Karia from the top floor of the Goshi Tower. It wasn't true, but Katashi Blade had other ways of keeping tabs on things happening far away. It didn't stop him from peering out the panoramic windows up here in appreciation. Who can say what he saw, but whatever it was he could not have missed the landscape indelibly marked with his hand.

Behind him, Sever and Stitch shifted their weight back and forth uneasily. The Executor was prone to these long moments of silence and it was extremely unsettling. Eventually, Sever couldn't keep it in any longer.

"We really don't know where she is, Executor."

Silence.

"We've checked everywhere. We would have sworn she'd come to us at some point. Maybe she really did die when the Rodan sank."

Silence.

"Anyway, if she's incompetent or a traitor we'll deal with her in our customary way. Just because she's our sister don't me we love her..."

"much." Stitch added helpfully.

Blade made no motion to respond while the brothers kept on prattling in their own defense. Eventually, he cut them off.

"Aimi is most definitely alive, and if you two knew about it you couldn't hide it from me anyway. If you find her, bring her to me. Otherwise, leave me alone."

They both headed for the exit as fast as they could. On the way out Sever asked over his shoulder, "So we're good then?"

The Executor's look was icy, "You two aren't creative enough to betray me. Get out."

***

Far higher than Goshi Tower, from a porthole under the wing of Sennin, Julian looked at Karia Vitalus. From this distance it was a huge blue disk, filling most of his vision. Still, it meant that everything he had ever known was incomprehensibly tiny, overall. A disturbing realization.

He tried to express this to Tara, but he wasn't a very eloquent person, and it was difficult to stay on topic when she was quivering and balling like she was right now. Something about nearly everyone dying and space being a horrible dark place and there being too much blood for her to ever erase from her mind.

When she gets in these moods, she's not very uplifting, he thought.

It was true that the experience of the Rusty Nail Rogues in space had been less than glamorous, and more than a little harrowing. Even now, they drifted without power a short distance from the Wandering Star, hundreds of kilometers above the ground, when at any moment a terrifying Oni or thousands of mutated eyeless might pore out of the gaping crater Moses had created. Presumably Kiyoshi would turn the engines on soon and they would go home. At least Julian hoped so.

The planet is such a small place. I never want to see it like this again.

***

As for Karia herself? The words of the Dusk Sage kept rippling through her thoughts... there is no Peace.

Her fragile little self was wounded to the core by such a pronouncement. She felt the emptiness where her chosen soul should have been. She felt the edges unraveling and knew the horrible truth of the saying. There is no Peace.

She wanted to know the answer. Every blade of grass and pebble of sand quivered in anticipation of the climax of the cosmic drama, but once answered there would be no more mystery. Would the absence of mystery feel like the death of Mokuzai? Like a hole collapsing at the edges and dragging meaning and hope with it into the abyss?

There is no Peace. Karia did not like this answer at all. Not one little bit.

The Troubles

2008-02-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

The Troubles. That's what they called it. Or that's what the Fiochmahr clan called it, anyhow, and it seemed a decent enough name for the last few years. Of course, things hadn't been altogether untroubled before that. Not since two hundred years previous, when the Fiochmahr clan had seen its very last Dusk Sage. They'd called him the Ash-Faced One. Cheeky bastard, he was; walked right off out of the clanhold with nary a ceremony of the parting but just a distant sort of look and a walking down the mountain. He'd faded into the dusk, and neither song nor legend had spoken of the passage of him or any other Dusk Sage since.

But tonight wasn't a night for brooding on the past, or feeling sorry for yourself. Tonight was a night for celebration! Tonight, the famous mead of the Fiochmahr clan was open for one and all. Four days previous, the Fiochmahr clan had destroyed the Cheldrun logging expedition sent out from some steel city or another. Pepsid Five, or something like that. Surely that was as good a cause for celebration as any. So old Grim Fiochmahr, Head of the Fiochmahr clan, had declared a celebration, and they'd been partying nonstop ever since. After all, it wasn't every day you put an end to the Cheldrun logging operations in your area, and if the guards had seemed only half hearted at best, well, they just weren't real fighters like the Gogajin were.

Old Grim hadn't always been the head, of course, but the tale he'd told of his escape from the mines of a dark Cheldrun city, and his rescue of a whole group of their women had gone a long way towards boosting his popularity in the clan, even if none other of his companions in the mines had made it out of Geneva Prime with him. Diarmaid, Adar, Rogan, Donald, Baldur, these were the new heroes of the clan. And as for old Grim, well, he had ne always been Old Grim. The mines, and what had happened after, they'd changed him. Aged him before his time, maybe. Or maybe it was that age didn't cling so tightly to his shoulders as he felt it, but he felt it. At least, that was the story everyone told, though it likely found its source in younger minds than his. Two children on the brink of their teenaged exile were particular suspects, but no one could prove their involvement in the starting of the rumour, and the name had caught on regardless. Old Grim it was.

The mead-hall was full of Gogajin, male and female alike, each of them eager to get roaring drunk as quickly as possible. They were seated at a series of long wooden benches that filled most of the room, and already the mead was flowing freely. Boisterous does not begin to describe a room full of partying Gogajin: a few good natured fights broke out, and a few couples decided that their time would be better spent in a dark corner with each other than at the table with the others, and all that was before the boasting competition began. The Fiochmahr clan had a tradition, you see: two Gogajin would tell increasingly wild and unbelievable boasts, and whoever it was that told the wildest, most unbelievable one, well, he or she would have to go out and try to accomplish it. Usually it ended in hangovers and a Gogajin sleeping with someone they wouldn't ordinarily have been inclined to, but a few weeks back, it had brought about the raid on the logging camp, and tonight, well, tonight it was a good bet it was going to...

The partying came to a sudden halt (though the couples in the dark corners didn't bother to stop) when a pair of Gogajin slammed open the doors to the mead-hall, with a group of Cheldrun in tow. They were badly emaciated, half starved, and looked more than halfway dead. About a dozen of them came in - a middle-aged man at their head, wearing the tattered remains of what had probably once been a fine silk kimono - and many more of them were crowded around the entrance.

Silence hung heavily in the air for a long moment before a young Gogajin - only just returned from his adolescent exile - rose to his feet and shouted, "What kind of fucked up shite is this!?"

"You shut your mouth, Hagan!" a middle-aged female Gogajin bellowed back.

A number of other Gogajin joined in then, until finally Grim rose to his feet and banged the table in front of him with an enormous fist. "ALL OF YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTHES!" he bellowed.

Silence.

"Right. You two," he looked to the two Gogajin leading the Cheldrun. "What kind of fucked up shite is this?"

One of the two Gogajin spoke up. "They showed theirselves at the gate a bare few moments ago, askin' fer food and water, uh, Grim."

Grim looked to the Cheldrun. "I wist they ne be speaken Gogajin?" he asked, his regional accent coming to the fore as he spoke.

The middle-aged male Cheldrun in the tattered kimono stepped forward. "Your pardon, sir, but I do."

Grim looked at the man. "... Well, what do ye want, then? Ye must be either very brave or very stupid to come here. Qwich is it?"

"I am Ishikawa Tetsuro of the Ruby Hawk Clan," the Cheldrun said. "My companions and I are... exiles. Refugees. There is no place for us in Katashi Blade's new regime, and we thought it better to try our luck in the wilderness than to die at the hands of a Goshi Assassin, or a bounty hunter... please, sir, we have nowhere else to go. We are hungry, we are tired, and many of us are sick." He swallowed, and what he said next had the feel of an old tree toppling over: "Will you help us?"

Grim took a long moment to think about that, weighing it out in his mind. Of course, in the end, looking at the Cheldrun all helpless and starving-like, there was only one conclusion he could have reached: "... Aye. Ye clepen for me help, and I hear ye." He rose up to his full, massively muscled height. "All right, listen here! Listen here! These wights be safe with kith and kin tonight. None harm nor hounde them here on pain of a beatin' the likes o which you none never seen!"

The other Gogajin shrugged. One of them thought about shouting, "Ah, fuck you Grim!" but thought better of it at the last moment. The Cheldrun did look pretty desperate, after all.

Grim gestured, and a pair of Gogajin, a wer and wyf (a male and a female, that is), came forward and led the Cheldrun away to the Clanhold's guest quarters so as they could stow their things before they came to join the feast.

The feast went on.

------------------------

Later, when the shadows had had faded into gloom, the moon had set, and the only sounds were the frantic scrabblings and brayings of donkeysex in the hall, and the peace of the predawn hours hung heavily over the land, there came a stranger to the Fiochmahr clanhold. Stranger than even the Cheldrun refugees. A mechified. He came creeping through the corridors, almost his entire body made of metal save his face and his middle, the sounds in the hall masking the clunk-clunk-clunk of his footsteps. His eyes had been replaced with gleaming red lenses, and they allowed his vision access to the infrared: it was with this that he tracked his prey.

Gently, ever so gently, he pushed open the large wooden door that led into the room where his target slept. A bounty hunter he was, and a good one. He always got his man, or so they said. This man, well, they'd specified dead or alive, and he figured that dead would be easier than dragging him back through the wilderness, so once he was sure that the middle-aged Cheldrun sleeping on the bed in the tattered Kimono was in fact Ishikawa Tetsuro of the Ruby Hawk Clan, Winston reached out with his right hand and placed it almost gently over the sleeping man's heart.

Then he reached over with his left hand and flipped the switch to activate the pneumatic spike. Or would have, if a grip as strong as steel itself hadn't caught his hand mid-flight.

Winston looked up in alarm. The occupants of the beds around Ishikawa Tetsuro's were not asleep at all, but awake and very very angry.

An angry looking Gogajin stepped forward and glared poor Winston in the face. "I given these wights safety here with kith and kin," he cracked his knuckles, "And unfortunate fer you, I meant it."

An hour later, three Gogajin tossed the bruised and battered body of Winston the Mechified over the walls of the clanhold, and down he tumbled into the brush with the long, loud, trailing clatter of metal sliding down two hundred yards of loose rock.

Grim dusted off his hands, wiped the sweat off his brow, and went back to bed, satisfied that that was the end of it.

But the troubles were only just beginning.

There Is No Peace

2008-02-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

The man with the oily black hair and fondness for lace had been very persuasive.

Lotus thought of herself as a top-notch security officer and her position in the chain of command for the Omexon branch of Goshi Mining Corporation confirmed such an appraisal, but she also could not deny the fact that she had just defied several important directives by cooperating with that alarmingly persuasive man. His request had been ludicrous, now that she thought about it, but at the time it had seemed as normal as breathing. He'd marched in the front doors of a high security facility without clearances and yet been permitted every step of the way to go further without being harmed. He had strutted (yes strut was the word) directly to her station at the disLocator monitors and he'd asked, in a very polite fashion, to be escorted by a squad of Hei-Shi to coordinates that... well let's face it, the coordinates were ridiculous.

But she hadn't resisted him anymore than the guards posted between the entrance and her desk had done. She nodded, she even (shudder) giggled girlishly, and she did exactly as he requested.

As the squad of Hei-Shi disappeared taking the persuasive man with them in a swirl of smoke, she looked down at her monitor. Yep. They'd gone thousands of kilometers to the West. They were somewhere in the middle of an uncharted ocean. Weird.

***

Kijuuki was as happy as a kitten in a string factory. This island was full of the Mana-Beings and many of them would do nothing but flee to defend themselves. She could not remember ever being so full of shining glory, before. Of course, she could not remember very much - part of the curse of being a Kyo-Tee-Shee, yesterday is nearly as indecipherable as tomorrow. Nor was she really full. True she had a glut of the beautiful light bursting through her every pore, but she never seemed to tire of the consuming. The consuming, in fact, became more of an obsession with each delicious morsel.

The One Who Unravels Mysteries had been wrong. He had created Kijuuki and her siblings and bound them in mysterious ways only he could unravel to the Kata-bearers, the God's of Ben Hamor, the Scions of Karia, the Cosmic Incarnation of the Answer to the Question of the All. Yes, this last title was sufficiently obnoxious to be an accurate representation of these beings. She and her siblings had been bound to them, believing that they could ride them to a cataract of Mana that would come along the timestream, but her own mount had been destroyed prematurely. It turned out that waiting for the cataract was a waste of time, because these Mana-beings were right here, now - and they were deliciously passive.

Not all of the Mana-beings were passive, however. Sometimes, Kijuuki encountered one of the beings she now referred to in her mental monologue as the "Dark Ones". The Dark Ones were Mana-beings, delectable in appearance, but overwhelmingly powerful. She avoided them assiduously, because they controlled her as surely as gravity determines the orbit of a planet, if she got too close. It was good, she reflected, that most of the Mana-beings did not resist, for they would be hard to eat if they all became Dark Ones.

She thought this while her beak was buried half way in the chest of a Mana-being sucking out delicious rainbow glory like a milkshake through a straw. The Mana-being raised its head, looking her in the eyes, and its expression made her hesitate.

"Kijuuki?" it said. "You are free?"

She refrained from pointing out the obviousness of this remark.

"Then Mokuzai is dead and all of Karia must mourn. The Answer moves closer to revelation. The Question is asked. Mokuzai is dead. There is no peace."

As he said this last thing, his mask caved in and she sucked up every delirious drop of Mana, until he was nothing at all.

She lay still for a moment while the All spun around her. She was intoxicated. She grinned idiotically. She heard someone coming, but she didn't care enough to check who it was.

***

Nero arrived on the Emerald Isle in a whirl of smoke, near the apex. Immediately behind him, a massive column of White Rock in the shape of a flame towered up to the sky. A magnificent omen that he was once again on the right path.

Oh, Spark. You doddering fool. Your mind was a cracked and rotten egg by the time I got to it, but it still contained more information than even you realized.

The Hei-Shi accompanying him looked around blankly for a moment, but Nero reasserted his control over them as easily as clenching his fist. They were soon forging ahead in every direction, through the jungle, teleporting to cover more ground, and reporting back at regular intervals. He would know the layout of the island in a few minutes. Some of his Hei-Shi did not report back, which let Nero know that the island was not a meek paradise, but it had a sting.

Then, one of his cobalt blue minions reappeared with a shocked expression on his face... His words were inarticulate, but his mental images were crystalline. He had seen something beautiful being consumed. The Hei-Shi had no way to know what it was, but he had instinctually recoiled at the sight.

"Take me," Nero commanded.

Nero arrived in time to see an enormous purple crane drowsily pecking at the shriveled remains of a... Inase Spark had called them Initiators: animate, non-living tools of the universe. A sudden cold rage came over him. He fell upon the crane in a flurry of balletic violence. Hovering knives sprung out of his coat and pinned the crane through the wings to the ground. His own fists and knees followed a split second after. As he struck he cursed it...

"You...vile...parasite! You have transgressed! This is a God you have destroyed..."

Kijuuki was sure she was hallucinating. Too much Mana consumed too quickly. This man was one of the Children of Steel. He did not belong on this island... except his eyes were so familiar. Those eyes compelled her to speak.

"Not Gods... Mana-beings... this one said," she wasn't precisely sure why she felt the need to repeat it, "this one said that there is no peace."

Nero's eyes narrowed, occluding the white, turning them to pools of blood. He gripped the bird's head pulling it intimately close to his mouth.

"No," he whispered, "not for you. For you there will never be peace again."

With that, he tore the crane apart, piece by piece, and ate it. It felt magnificent.

The Trial of Jin-Kalys

2008-02-26T01:57:00.001-08:00

Jin is getting better at speaking to Cheldrun. It is an intriguing endeavor, and his accent is improving steadily. For example - a rise in volume is interpreted as passion. This adaptation to the unfortunate lack of dewlaps is understandable in retrospect. There is also nuance - a rise in pitch and volume is distinct from a rise in just one or the other. Lowering pitch can be accompanied even with a reduction in volume to lend psychological force to the words. When threatening, for example, or even, oddly, when seeking a mate to fertilize your eggs. No, not eggs. Bare embryos.

Jin has the opportunity to put his newfound knowledge to use. The Stardown Council, such as it is, has convened an impromptu trial for the purpose of dealing with Jin's humble self. The issue of certain injuries (and fatalities, he thinks, glancing at Varissa, restrained nearby) sustained by security officers at Stardown Technology and Research, as well as various instances of property damage, including the manipulation of a sacred First Mind artifact, need to be resolved legally.

Briefly stated: there are a large number of angry, confused Cheldrun who aren't sure whether to execute him or reward him. Drawn-out proceedings have not served to clarify the matter. (Oddly, Sousauryoku has remained silent throughout, watching Jin thoughtfully.) As the trial has dragged on, Jin's breathing techniques have enabled him to control the bubbling impatience swelling inside of him at the sight of so much addled and imprecise cogitation.

Jin has his thoughts on the matter of his execution, of course, and they are now expressed in a well-carrying, lowered voice, in order to impart intensity of feeling without the implication of desperation.

"Ladies and gentlemen. August personages of the Stardown Council. There are a plethora of reasons not to execute myself and my companions at this time. At your invitation, I will now endeavor to humbly present some of them before you, at which point you will of course deliberate and render your judgment in this matter.

"A large portion of our story has already been rendered to you, piecemeal, I believe you would say, so I will not belabor those points. What seems to be germane is my intent in coming here, and the extent to which my actions were commensurate with achieving that intent within the confines of the law.

"I am not versed in Cheldrun law, but I will offer the statement that I did not in fact kill or permanently injure any Cheldrun, and any of my companions'...indiscretions...can perhaps be attributed to the matter of expedience. That is to say, as you can see, it takes a long time to explain what it was we were attempting.

"In coming here, I was guided by a mathematical and philosophical model which is, among other things, a polyvalent heuristic discernment device." Nothing. "Hem. That is, the model enables me to take into account certain discrete data and to analyze and refine it for the purpose of perceiving interconnections and predicting future ones." Some blinking and open mouths. Am I speaking to fish!? "Rather...it enables me to...mathematically predict the future."

Now they understand, but they are quite unconvinced. The bailiff, who is monitoring Jin's allotted time, shouts for silence until he's finished. About half of the gathered mob is no longer really paying attention. Jin smooths a dewlap and remembers to count his breath.

"If you are seeking verification, you could of course turn your attention to the vast purple energy field which is currently protecting you from Hei-Shi attack. I was able to determine how to accomplish that feat, from a considerable distance in time and space, using this model. I was able to locate an underground research facility, and to utilize a seemingly unconnected resource, that is, the last Vorax egg on Karia, to charge the device in such a way as to accomplish my task." Sainted lizard sages! This is a fine feeling. No piercing for this, because these are hardly worthy adversaries, but they are listening now. The facial expressions might be deemed...grudging, but still.

"Feel free, if I may say so, to explain all of that however you like. It was not even my primary objective in coming here. I believe that you are now aware of the threat that is approaching. Has, in fact, already arrived. You call it the Enemy. I would call it a Probable Extinction Nexus. Regardless..." the bailiff is gesturing to Jin - his allotted time is running out in which to make his legal defense, though he has abandoned thoughts of legal defense at this point. They will hopefully perceive that legal considerations are indeed ancilliary to what is truly at stake.

"Regardless of our differences in nomenclature, we share an existential threat that will either exterminate everything...or it won't. That threat is connected to the Wandering Star. It is, of course, not a star at all. Whatever it is - and I am quite determined to discover this - whatever it is, the Probable Extinction Nexus is connected to it inextricably.

"And so, I propose...no, I intend - to tear it out of the sky, to bring it down in a holocaust of friction as it plummets through the upper layers of the air, to finally be rent apart and incinerated when it impacts the ground. It needs to impact the ground so that it does not cause a tsunami which will threaten coastal settlements. It will doubtless expel millions of cubic meters, in your measurement system - which is quite an elegant base-ten system by the way once one learns to utilize it - of particulate...but the Wandering Star will be gone. I have the entirety of my calculations in your notation if anyone is interested..." Jin eagerly proffers a stack of mottled, slightly burnt paper with tiny, precise handwritten numbers and symbols and diagrams covering both sides of each page, the painstaking work (especially since much of it was actually done while camping in the jungle with a Gogajin and a Jevumm) the result of months of meticulous effort.

Slowly, Sousauryoku's hand goes up, and Jin allows himself a smile. Sousauryoku merely stares enigmatically. Everyone else in the room is staring at Jin, but they express no interest in the fruits of his cognitive labors.

No one else in the room matters.

"I know how I can accomplish this. I created the field to prevent the Primary Dissolutionary Element - in this iteration, Goshi Corporation - from interfering. At this juncture, it is necessary that we...that we tip the balance in favor of not becoming extinct.

"I see my time is up. Thank you."

Sousauryoku stands up from the plaintiff's seat before anyone can rally any kind of response to that kind of barrage.

"August members of the Council, I hereby drop all civil charges, on the condition that this Anakarix and his two companions be remitted to my care for the duration of their stay in Stardown." He walks forward - the bailiff, somewhat flabbergasted, does nothing to intervene - and gently takes the stack of paper from Jin's clawed hand.

"If this is garbage, I'll know soon enough, and you will disappear." He has lowered his voice, and the intensity is no doubt intended to be interpreted as threat and confidence.

Slowly, Jin's dewlaps extend, displaying an arresting motley of crimson, violet and bright solar orange, immediately making him appear larger and more threatening in a cold, reptilian sense. His piercings, the marks of honor and of the victory of ideas, clink together musically. "If the work of the sainted and eternal lizard sage, Asterakalys, the Helio-Synthesis model, as I have applied it through nine-branch formal logic, is proven to be garbage, then you can do with me what you will."

Kiyoshi and Kijuuki

2008-02-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

With a grip like a vice Kiyoshi pulled the ephemeral purple crane by the neck until the two of them hung eye to eye, floating in zero gravity. Blind with rage he leveled an ultimatum at the bird and proceeded to attempt the binding...

A Kyo-Tee-Shee can be bound to a soul if certain conditions are met. The soul must be an appropriately large vessel. Most people are unequipped for the task. The soul must be familiar with the metaphysics of the transfer of mana. Those who remain deaf and dumb to the effects of mana are like shallow puddles in which nothing can be immersed, least of all a Kyo-Tee-Shee. And of course, the Kyo-Tee-Shee in question must be intoxicated on a recent consumption of mana, but not just any mana. Like rivers, some streams of mana are purer than others.

When Kijuuki consumed Suraisu-Oni's mana she was indeed drunk for a few moments, but it was like being drunk on Schlitz Malt Liquor. The searing headache which rushed upon her woke her from her stupor in time to realize what was happening and to know that she was in no danger. You see, Kiyoshi already had one Kyo-Tee-Shee bound to his soul and no soul, no matter how great, can accommodate more than that.

So he thrust himself upon her intending that they should be united, intending to entrap her like he had trapped her brother... but she smiled.

In a split instant a look passed between them and in that look there was a great deal of information. Kiyoshi saw that what he was doing was impossible. He saw, also, that he had gotten himself into great danger - for he held a free Kyo-Tee-Shee about the neck. One with a large quantity of mana, and no god-question-answer-manifestation left to serve. Kijuuki had become a powerful and arbitrary force of nature, bound by no laws - especially not the law of death.

I cannot be destroyed. The look said. I cannot be controlled. I am free at last to consume mana to my heart's content and you and your friends will pay for imprisoning me.

Had this all taken longer than a flash of lightning to occur, Kiyoshi would have done a hundred different things to stop Kijuuki, but it was all over in an instant. Kijuuki blazed with purple light, searing his hand and blinding his eyes. She evaporated amidst that light sending Kiyoshi one last image before his brain shut down from overload dragging him into a coma.

Kiyoshi drifted into a deep sleep with that image replaying over and over in his mind. It was a picture of the place she was going next. Going to gorge herself on mana. The Emerald Isle.

Director of Distribution and Security

2008-02-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Anyone else would have been complaining that they got more than they bargained for, but not Rain. In the space of two years she had ascended from a 2nd tier efficiency expert to Director of Distribution, assumed the role of Acting Director of Security when Hurricane had her accident, and then seen her employer become a world dominating power. Rain now sat in the driver's seat of a continent-spanning operation of such intricacy that it boggled the mind - and deep down, she was loving it.

It is true, working for the Executor has its drawbacks. He is a demanding man, and he never answers questions, but Rain is not really a curious girl. She is however, extraordinarily good at keeping hundreds of different factors in mind simultaneously and calculating the consequences. Though, Goshi's coup had not been bloodless, it was a far smoother affair than it would have been had anyone else been at the helm. With Blade's informants so well placed she had up to the minute information about the whereabouts and activities of every significant political leader, military commander and Mecha pilot on Karia - a state of affairs that made a rash of assassinations exceedingly easy.

Since then, her sole objective had been quelling dissent and keeping everyone outside the top three floors of the Goshi Tower completely confused. Hei-Shi regularly teleported into and out of public locations. Sometimes they were there for a purpose, sometimes they were there just to make observers wonder. In every city dissenters had to be regularly stirred up and eliminated in such a way that word got out, but no one saw or knew enough to tell the tale straight. The goal was to ensure that no one could be certain what Goshi's motives were. The daily ordinances delivered by public monitors were part of this as well. Every four to six days Rain made sure to put in ordinances that contradicted, in subtle ways, ordinances that had come before. A befuddled and fearful populace is an inactive one.

However, she knew better than to think these tricks would work perfectly forever. No one had been less surprised than her to learn that Stardown had found a way to mount an effective resistance - exclude the disLocators. Precisely how they'd done it remained a mystery to her, but she saw such attempts on the horizon and thus she'd already begun conscripting soldiers for a more traditional terrestrial army before it happened. It would be only a few days before her first regiments were ready to begin the march overland, and however well prepared Stardown might be by then, they could never hope to compete with the unlimited wealth of Goshi Corp.

In fact, she relished the upcoming battle. So long as she kept everyone else out of balance, Stardown was becoming a gravity well for resisters throughout Cheldrun society. Already, she'd been informed that the Silver Phoenix Clan, led by their insufferable patriarch Daitokuji Ichirou and his Mecha, had joined forces with the citizens of Stardown. Prominent members of the UMA were supposed to have made it through the energy dome which protected the region as well. If she waited just a little while longer, every person who was a threat to Goshi would be accumulated in one place. Most likely including Kiyoshi, Moses and friends, she thought, permitting herself a little smile. In one fell swoop she could end the war and secure Goshi dominance for a long time to come.

The key to the whole situation would be waiting just long enough...

The One Who Hopes

2008-02-23T01:52:00.001-08:00

When I meet his gaze, I know.

The One Who Bridges the Gap. His eyes are my eyes. I can see the... familial resemblance. I see it in a way that it wasn't present even in Aimi, or Sever, or Stitch, or Malicious. I see in his eyes what I see in my own, and in Nero's, and I know.

I know what I have to do.

"Who are you?" he asks, echoing back my own question. The question. One of the two questions that are truly important.

"My name is Rei," I reply.

He cocks his head to the side in a motion that is less Cheldrun than it is birdlike. "Rei? That doesn't make any sense."

"People keep saying that," I murmur. I think for a moment. "I'm... Mikomi?" I offer. It feels strange to use that name, but it feels close to the truth. Closer than 'Rei,' anyways. Zero. ... I no longer want to be the Empty Void, but I doubt I will ever really be able to change my nature.

"Your real name," he says.

Moses and Una and High Dive are watching now, and Moses's worried thoughts are like a distant buzzing in the back of my awareness. Amaterasu hungers. I don't want to be the empty void. Emptiness. Hallow. Cold. Dark. The question. Life? The inevitable heat death of the universe. Maximum entropy. An eternity of nothingness. There must be something more than that. Against all evidence to the contrary, that can't be all there is. I consider my answer for a long moment, and when I speak, I know before I even open my mouth that I am about to say something true on a level I have never uttered before: "I am The One Who Hopes."

The One Who Bridges the Gap nods. "Ah yes. That makes sense. Don't worry, The One Who Hopes. It will be over soon. But how did you get out here?"

"I came from the planet," I say. His eyes are hypnotic. So very like my own. The sense of kinship is almost painful in its intensity.

"Sent out in advance?" it asks. "The others will want to meet you."

I move forward and take his hand, feeling now more sure of the rightness of this course of action than I have ever before in my life. All the justifications I had been making for it seem to fade into the background: that I must learn about my enemy if we are to defeat it, that I am gathering information, that it would be irresponsible to let any more of my friends die because of our ignorance. All fades behind a great singular fact: this is what I was born for. This is why my father created me.

The One Who Bridges the Gap looks towards my companions. "Malice must be resolved," he says, and with a gesture of his hand, Garandu-Oni and Suraisu-Oni step through the wall.

The distant buzz of Moses' thoughts crescendos, and I am distantly aware of making telepathic contact with his mind. Then High Dive cries out, "Rei, what are you doing!?"

I meet her gaze and smile. "It's my purpose," I say. And then, hand in hand with The One Who Bridges the Gap, I walk through the bulkhead, and then through another, and another, and another. The sounds of combat are quickly muted, and then fade altogether.

We emerge into a vast open chamber, and my eyes are immediately drawn to the center, where floating in midair, strange metallic rings circle the largest quantity of White-Rock I have ever seen in my life: here is the heart of the ship, and Amaterasu's whispers rise up like a tide, urging me to let her out, to let her feed, and even here where I am able to distinguish between her thoughts and mine, I want to do as she asks. This amphitheatre-sized chamber is the Wandering Star's FTL drive, full of catwalks and strange technological devices and readouts and instrumentation so alien that I can't even begin to hope to understand it. But then, I don't need to, because what I see next stills even the hungry murmurs of Amaterasu within my mind.

There, all around the white rock engine, are strange, familiar figures. Each of them like the One Who Bridges the Gap, each of them different. Each of them like an idealized Cheldrun figure, and each of them with vibrant, otherworldly eyes. Some blue, some yellow, some red, some other colours, but each of them like mine; each of them like Nero's.

"I'm home," I whisper.

welcome home

Episode 27: After a Death

2008-02-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

We teleport out of the Wandering Star and into the medical bay in one gut-wrenching moment.

Teleport.

I can't think. Everything has leaked out of me. I don't know how much of the blood is mine. Zipporah! "HighDive, I need you...to hide...Mokuzai." She looks confused. "I don't want...I don't want Zipporah to see him..."

"Oh. Was she his wife?"

What? "What?"

"Girlfriend?"

I'm drawing a blank. Is she speaking Cheldrun? What is going on? Has the Zipsum snapped?

"Second cousin...?"

"No, she's - I - you've been on a ship with her for months, we've...never mind. Just hide his head. Please." She shrugs, shoves it into a drawer. "No, Zip might need to go in that drawer. Someplace else..."I hold open the door, but HighDive doesn't get the hint, and instead shoves Mokuzai's severed, tongueless head into a freezer. "HighDive -"

Behind me, there is a sound of scrambling and Zipporah bursts into the room, looking panicked. She slowly takes in the scene, horror growing on her face.

Rei tries to be helpful. I wish she wouldn't. "Most of the blood isn't mine."

HighDive blurts out "Yeah, a lot of it came out of Mokuzai."

I think if I can grab her, now while she's distracted, I can crush her in my bare hands. Zip looks to me, stark white, clearly approaching shock. "Look, Zip, I...Mokuzai...Mokuzai died. He's. He's gone." I can see her just going blank, probably looking exactly how I do right now. "But right now, we have to think about Una and Kyoshi. They're alive, but they're really hurt." She sees the hole in my shoulder, slowly leaking a twisting trail of blood that bends lazily without any gravity. Then she sees Kyoshi, grits her teeth, and moves over to the table where Rei is trying to strap him down.

Rei grimaces and starts in with her lecturing-voice. "Listen, don't try to cut him or drain any humors or anything, because he's already lost a lot of blood -"

"Shut up and hold him down" and she is bending over him and starting to work. I love you.

I black out for a minute, then, realize I need to go help Trencher with the gun so that more eyeless don't get to the Senin.

"Don't. You. Dare." I freeze. Its really easy to stop moving. I feel sleepy. I watch blood trail out of me...

Some time later, Zipporah's tears have let some of her pain out, just enough to keep going, just like we're feeling - so much all at once! - and Una's tears have restored me completely. We just go throughout the world, these past months, brimming over with miracles, and all we get is blood and gore in return. If Karia didn't have her heroes, would it really be worse off? I can't even guess, sometimes. Looking at Rei, I'm not sure hero is even the right word. She and HighDive are half Kyo-tee-shee now as far as I can tell. And Rei is getting worse.

***

I learn that you can cry and shoot a heavy-caliber machine-gun at the same time. I feel like in all the world, only we would have any chance to learn things like that. When my eyes dry out, I have time to think. We need to block the door. The eyeless are very strong - not quite as strong as me, but there are lots of them. I think about plugging the door, about welding it shut, about collapsing it. But we have limited rounds, and we still have work to do. I'm not done here. We're not done.

I want to tear this damned thing out of the sky.

But first things first. And I have time. I try to relax, to think like I'm somewhere else. What's in here? The scaffolding and the catwalk (or cat-crawl?). It looks solid. Loads of stray bullets haven't broken it loose. I look around. There's a lot of heavy metal paneling. It'll take a while, but I think I can pry it up. And a weld won't hold long enough. I relax some more. I remember...I remember being very little. When I was with Namie. They brought in a 'specialist'. Everyone talked about it real careful, and I got scared that I was sick. They said "no" and their looks said "yes". But all it turned out to be was this friendly older man with spectacles who made me play games with him. One of the games was where he put a bunch of weird blocky shapes in front of me in a pile, and showed me a picture of a cube. I was still nervous. Just wait, little Moshe, until you see how they fit.

I remember when he left to talk with my adopted parents, I didn't hear all they said, but I did hear what he said about me. He's cognitively defective, as we guessed, but benign. Mild retardation, really. He should be able to lead a normal life.

I waited until I saw how it fit together. How to block the eyeless out unless they bring dynamite or an Oni. And more than that. I'm starting to see a lot.

***

HighDive bursts into the room, gasping. "Angry Oni!" she says, and points back the way she came.

"What!?" I've been arguing with Rei. She wants to go into the core of the ship and feed who-knows-how-much Whiterock to her damn Kyo-tee-shee. I'd wish she'd make her own choices, but I've seen how bad that can go too. I can't think about what to do about Rei right now. I yank the cable I'm using to power the computer Rei was using to find the engines and start re-attaching it to the main pneumatic relay in my right leg. "Ok, that's it. We need to get out of here." Rei snaps some instructions HighDive's way as she's darting out the door.

We follow, more slowly, only to reach the vast engine bay just as HighDive is leaving it. It looks like she's a firework-rocket trailing dozens of eyeless angrily swarming after her. I guess this means she's done? We get back to the chamber and she goes down the opposite passage to set her other explosives.

Rei is staring at something. I turn to look. Una does too. The security hatch behind us, the one leading to the Whiterock, starts to ripple and bend. I remember Karaku-Oni and immediately call on a miracle, summoning shields in front of everyone, trying to backpedal out of the room as quickly as I can.

And then a figure emerges, rippling liquid metal, and it hardens into a perfect Biomade face with red-tinged eyes. Another fucking Rei-sibling??

It sucks in a breath like we're just what it was hoping to find. "At last, you've come. The Answer."

Then its looking at Rei. Something is going on between them. Is it talking to Rei or Amaterasu? Does it matter?

"Yes...its taken me a long time to find you."

"Its taken us a long time to find them." It nods to us, looks us over, taking its time. Just when I started to think I'd figured things out.

Looking at Una and me, it says "Malice must come to an end."

Malice. Oh. Ok. I get it. It and Rei are still talking, like a family reunion. Una argues, panicking, pointing to Rei and me - "They're malice, not us!"

No, Una, we're all malice to this thing. It has introduced itself as The One Who Bridges the Gap, and Rei is talking again. "My name is Rei." It doesn't buy that. "I'm...Mikomi?" I've heard the name before. "I'm...I'm she who hopes."

"Ah, yes. that makes sense." What the hell are you doing?? "Come, we must resolve this." It gestures toward Una, myself and HighDive, who has just returned, slamming the hatch behind her, angry eyeless pounding on the far side.

Then Garandu-Oni slides through one wall, and opposite it, Suraisu-Oni. She Who Hopes and The One Who Bridges the Gap slide out a far door. I hear a voice in my mind: "RUN".

No. We're not fast enough. I turn to Una and HighDive. "Get back to the ship."

There's something I've been wanting to do ever since Mokuzai died, even back to when we first entered this damned floating tomb of gore. "I've got your answer." I close my eyes, and I hear it, building like a song, a low hum echoing throughout this part of the ship as plates pull away from each other, as bindings and fixtures and reinforcing bars begin to thrum, then shake, then buckle. I want to tear this fucking ship apart. I barely feel the impact of Suraisu-Oni's whirling drill-blade as it bites into my body and twists, cutting flesh and metal effortlessly.

It erupts out of me, an awful miracle rolling out from beneath me like a vast wave, and everything tears itself apart with screams of metal, shapnel rolling all around us. I see Garandu-Oni stagger and begin to come apart - just as its tentacles hit me they are flayed at the moment they begin to suck out my life. I see Suraisu-Oni sheared partially open. In a rage it sends both attacks to me, and those I feel. Una is healing herself, her tears cutting shining blue tracks in her face, and then there is an explosion of shining blue feathers that chokes and blinds all of us. I hear Una say "Cover our escape!" and then she goes limp in my arms.

***

The feathers dissipate while we flee, but they're upon us as soon as we reach the metal bracing structure I'd built so damn well. HighDive has battered a hole to get through, and Trencher widens it so I can push Una through too. It hits him too late that I'm not coming.

I turn to the passage, see the first writhing tentacles of Garandu-Oni sliding around a bend in the corridor, seeking us, and the grinding of Suraisu-Oni right behind.

I'm too close to the Senin. So I rush them. When they get to the curve in the corridor I can find no words - and then a wave even more vast than the first bursts out of me. Garandu-Oni is torn apart in a shower of metal and energy, and Suraisu-Oni is cut up even more.

Then the hungry silence outside sucks us right out the hole I just made.

I have time for two parting shots, burning Suraisu with my own blood and breath, channeling the pain out of me and into it in a beam of red. Trencher drags himself on board and throws me a cable. I barely have the strength to grab it. We pull ourselves back onto the Senin. I feel no better than when we teleported into the medical bay three hours ago. The Wandering Star is still intact. We lost Mokuzai, and we lost Rei. Kyoshi was wrong - the Oni can't really be killed at all.

I think of Amaterasu eating all of that Whiterock.

We keep getting our asses handed to us, but the Kyo-tee-shee are winning.

But not you Tanuki. Not you.