First Angels

by Guerric Haché, Keezy Young

  Everything in here was humming quietly, machines and pipes and even a single small watcher floating through the space. She looked to her left and saw the shape of the crystal room, quite clearly defined. It almost looked like it had been added in as an afterthought.

  “That’s the whole thing? I can reinforce that?”

  Reinforcement would be prudent. I will highlight the key areas necessary for maintaining broadcast capabilities.

  “Alright then - here goes.”

  She extended an arm towards the wall, slowed time, and set to work. Tiny black spindles of dark code extended from her hands, building onto one another and extending their reach until they found the walls, where she started tracing. Cherry helped her see where everything had to go, and she sped up time only to let her eyes or head turn here and there to improve her view - everything else could be done far more quickly. As she circled the cylindrical crystal room, she threw more light sigils onto the walls, each of them lighting her way as she worked.

  She enclosed the outer walls of the room in a large, cage-like sigil, and all the lines in the room connected in a cramped but accessible centre under the room’s floor. That was where she traced the core reinforcement sigil, holding together all the code and, by extension, the room. Then, for good measure, she doubled up the density of the spiderweb of code that now enveloped the entire room.

  Parts of the code glowed, briefly, before fading to their usual matte black.

  Ada next turned her attention to the floor below the crystal room, and began to trace a massive version of the levitating sigil she had used in Hive, tiny dark spindles etching darkness in the light of even more code she placed wherever needed. Couldn’t she just hold the light source, somehow? Like a flashlight? That would be something.

  Levitation required a complex sigil, and twisting it around the pillars and machines underneath the crystal room deformed it even further, but she managed to make it a fair bit larger than the room itself, and she stepped back to admire her handiwork with a smile.

  “What do you think, Cherry? Will that hold?”

  Yes, the room should be able to reach orbit intact. Energy for the launch is still the primary challenge.

  “Okay, well - let’s get started on that rock eating sigil, then, shall we?”

  Uploading the schematics to your suit. Ada, the situation outside has changed.

  Ada felt a chill go down her spine, and the smile fled her face. “What do you mean?”

  One of the dragons has been killed.

  Ada let go of a ragged breath even as Cherry nonchalantly threw up the silhouette of the energy sigil into her vision. “Killed? By what?”

  The woman you encountered in the archive facility a few days ago, Isavel. Her nanobiological readings have changed somewhat since then. I anticipate she will kill another dragon. Should I intervene? She is no threat to me.

  “Isavel.”

  Ada’s eyes flicked to the ground, hoping to find an easy solution there. All she saw was Isavel’s face, warmly drawn from memory. By all means, she knew what she should do - tell Cherry to blast Isavel out of the sky. And yet something was holding her back, a kind of warmth to the woman that Ada couldn’t face down.

  Ada swallowed her instincts, looked back up at the ceiling, into the darkness beyond which she knew Cherry was circling the mountain peak, and decided to make the call. The future of humanity was at stake, and Isavel couldn’t be allowed to endanger that, especially not without a very good reason. A very good reason that Ada understood. She would have to be stopped.

  “Leave her.”

  Ada said the words but, for a moment, didn’t realize what she had said. Then her eyes widened.

  “I mean - wait.”

  Who was Isavel, and why in the thousand worlds did it matter? Ada had no time for this. She had a civilization to rebuild.

  “Just… I don’t think it will be a problem.”

  She will reach the mountain soon. She has just fought off a second dragon, and is grappling with the remaining one.

  “Well… Let’s finish this code fast, then.” Her heartbeat had accelerated, and an uncomfortable chill had settled in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want Isavel to walk in while she was on her knees in the dust and wreckage, scratching away at code like a madwoman. She didn’t want to be seen like that; she needed to be done, be ready, be composed when she greeted her… adversary.

  Ada stretched out a hand and launched tiny spindles of dark code from it, slowing time for as long as she could manage, the snake-like chain of dark code scratching and clawing into the hard floors to carve out the sigil Cherry was showing her. She tried not to think of what it would mean for Isavel to waltz in here before everything was done.

  The Chengdu has arrived at the coast. Tanos and Zhilik are boarding it. Should I relay any orders to them?

  She had almost forgotten about them. Ada shook her head, trying to avoid the distractions, and thought back at Cherry. Uh, sure. Help them figure out a way to signal to the ghosts they’re there, without being seen. Give them suggestions, maybe? If the ghosts want to run away after we’re done here, they’re welcome to ride the ship. Just don’t let them control it.

  Acknowledged .

  Oh, and Cherry, how do I make sure this sigil doesn’t consume the crystal room as well? That would be a fucking mess. One of many that might be about to happen.

  The sigil I am highlighting for you contains directionality guards on the inner edge, to both channel the flow of materials into the energy nexus underneath the room, as well as to ensure that the structural damage to the mountain and surroundings only occurs around the crystal room. The crystal and its chamber will not be damaged, and when the chamber reaches orbit I will guide it to a safe location on the ring.

  Ada sighed - extremely slowly, as her mind and code raced along at hyperspeed - while tracing code she didn’t understand. One day, she would have to sit down and properly study the entire enterprise, rather than just ape bits and pieces when convenient. She already understood it was a system, something like writing, for moving and manipulating energy - but so many details were missing, and so much practice and experience remained to be had.

  Isavel has killed a second dragon.

  The words startled Ada and broke her concentration. She let out grumble. She was still halfway through tracing a vast, mottled circle through the underground chambers surrounding the crystal room. “What about the other one?”

  It fled. She is just outside the door to the facility; I can pick her off without risking damage to the structural integrity of the facility, or the mountain.

  Pick her off. The words sounded dirty, dismissive, and Ada bristled at them. “No. It’s fine.”

  Very well. Without her knowing how to reach you, I estimate you have another ten minutes. She will likely track you by scent.

  “Scent? Are you saying I stink?”

  What you know as the pathfinder’s gift also confers a heightened sense of smell.

  “Oh. I’ve heard people say that. I always just thought it was a joke.”

  The information their senses give them are designed to be felt as intuitions. This was a conscious decision during the crafting of the gifts, especially for hunters and pathfinders.

  So much lost knowledge; it would be a pity to die here and not understand any of it. Ada would just have to get around Isavel to get out. But Ada could do anything - escaping couldn’t be too hard.

  “The installation will be done by the time she gets here, won’t it? How long will this levitation take?” Ada slowed time again and continued her work, trying to do as much as she could without slipping back into real time again.

  The energy increase will likely be non-linear. It will take eighteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds once you make the final code connection.

  “I have no idea how to track that amount of time right now, but it doesn’t sound that bad.” She rushed to finish the sigil, a massive work the likes of which she had never even seen befo
re. It put even the most dangerously complex, master-level sigils at the Institute to shame - but just as with those, she would not fail here, either. Energy would flow throughout the dark code like water through channels and canals, bringing light and power to her plans.

  If she was lucky, her plans might actually meet with success, and she might be able to escape. And if not…

  Ada wasn’t about to roll over and die. She felt the weight of her gun and her shield at her side, listened carefully to the silence in the chamber beyond. That silence would end soon enough, and she would be ready.

  Isavel has entered the facility. Shall I update you on her progress?

  “Obviously.” Frantically, Ada clawed at the ground with talons of dark code, etching the last hope for life after death into the cold concrete. Whatever happened outside was not her concern.

  She has found the elevator. Should I jam it?

  “Yes.”

  Done.

  Not her concern. She needed to finish this. She traced the final lines of the sigil.

  She cut through the floor of the elevator and dropped down. She is following the same route you took.

  The code hummed to life, and Ada heard a creaking under the ground. Nothing much happened. “Did that work?”

  Yes. Eighteen minutes and twenty-one seconds remaining. You should consider vacating the area.

  Ada shook her head. She couldn’t leave - Isavel might just arrive and destroy everything. She needed to make sure that didn’t happen. But how could she…

  The gods. She remembered Isavel talking about the gods. She had seemed pious. If Ada could get the gods to talk to her… “Cherry. Can we get the gods talking in this room?”

  We can open a channel, but they may not respond.

  “Do it. I want them to pay attention here, at the very least.”

  Ada strode down the stairs, into the large room outside the crystal chamber, and stopped a few meters short of those two bloodied knives, still lying in the middle of the room. Her eyes widened - what a mess. She froze up, looking around. She couldn’t just leave those -

  “You.”

  Ada’s eyes snapped from the random corners of the room to the doorway, to the pillar of olive-brown muscle that was Isavel, standing in the doorway, posture askance and eyes locked onto hers. Isavel was a complete and utter mess. Fresh pink scars laced her arms and legs, her pants were torn and scuffed, a battered and blood-soaked pathfinder’s brace was the only thing she wore on her chest, and she was barefoot. Her brown hair was a wiry tangle of blood and knots. She looked like she had been killed twice over.

  And yet, she also looked like she was completely and utterly unharmed, underneath the chaos, and that strength nailed Ada in place.

  “Yes, me.” Ada tilted her head to the side, trying for bravado, also just trying to breath. “Funny now this keeps happening.”

  Isavel didn’t look amused. She looked… sad? “It would be funny under other circumstances. What are you doing here?”

  “I bet you have a good idea.”

  Isavel bit her lip. “Something that will help the ghosts - something that does not destroy them. That’s what it comes down to.”

  “If you’re here to destroy the crystal - the shrine - you’ll do more than defeat the ghosts, Isavel. You’ll destroy life after death.” She glanced up. Cherry, is that link to the gods working?

  Yes.

  Isavel looked like she thought Ada was crazy. “That’s not possible. The afterlife is our birthright, and the gods would not rob us of that. Get out of the way, Ada. I don’t… I don’t need to hurt you.”

  Ada pulled her gun out and let it hang in her right hand. “I’m not afraid to fight you, Isavel.”

  A feeble smile crossed Isavel’s lips as she took a step forward. “You should be. I know how well you dance.”

  Ada’s face got hot. She really needed a way out of this. “I think the limits of the gods would surprise you, Isavel. Listen - once I’m finished here, the ghosts will stop the war. This is about fixing -”

  “You can’t presume to fix what the gods have laid down for us!” Isavel responded. “The gods’ whims are life, death, and transcendence. I know it firsthand.”

  “Really?” Ada remembered that old saying from her mother’s mouth. “Okay, I’ll let you hear it from them. Gods on the ring! As Arbiter, I’m asking you to tell Isavel exactly what’s going on here. If she doesn’t understand, the continued prosperity of humanity is -”

  Dozens of voices suddenly boomed into the room in unison. “Arbiter Ada Liu, we cannot command Herald Isavel Valdéz to stay her course. We do not have majority consent among the Arbiters.”

  For a moment the words meant nothing to Ada. Then she froze, looking up at the ceiling, horror washing over her. It was with only a tiny amount of relief that she saw Isavel was likewise frozen in place.

  “Gods?” Isavel breathed. “Am I on the right course?”

  The gods replied to her just as readily. “You are pursuing your duty.”

  “What do you mean , you don’t have consent among the others? It’s not a damned council - is it?! I’m - I’m a gods-damned Arbiter! ”

  The gods’ response to her was swift. “There are four Arbiters. Yourself and Arbiter Zhang agree with your course of action. Arbiters Blackwell and Kapur disagree with your course of action. Without a majority in either direction, we cannot interfere with our Herald.”

  “Your Herald? ” Ada demanded.

  “What are you saying?” Isavel looked confused, but Ada ignored her as the gods boomed back from the ceiling.

  “After consultation from the four Arbiters, it was determined that there was no clearly superior outcome with regards to the matter of the ghost security incident. Investments were made in all possible outcomes that were judged superior to the status quo.”

  “You’re playing us against each other? ” Ada shouted.

  Isavel was no happier. “What’s going on? Speak clearly! As your Herald, I have a right to know what… what I’m heralding! ”

  “The destruction of the shrine may be in the best long-term interests of humanity, given humanity’s fundamental nature as finite and mortal. Its repair may also be in the best long-term interests of humanity, given its nature as expansive and expressive. We are satisfied that both possible outcomes conform with the zeroth law.”

  “Just tell her!” Ada shouted at them. “Tell Isavel what happens if she destroys the crystal! Say it!”

  “It does not matter.”

  Ada looked over at Isavel in frustration, saw her confused face, and suddenly understood. They had been speaking to Ada entirely in the ancient dialect, and not Ada and Isavel’s own first language. Isavel had barely understood a word of what they were saying.

  Ada’s eyes widened in shock as the gods switched now to the common tongue again, just for Isavel. “Isavel Valdéz, this is your duty. Ada Liu, this is your will. May the greater of the two prevail.”

  “No! You lying machine fucks, you can’t just leave it at that!” Ada was screaming. There was a long silence, however, and Ada found her rage against the gods unanswered.

  Isavel lowered her gaze, visibly distraught but no less intent than before. “It sounds like the gods aren’t on your side, Ada.” She had her arm raised, an energy blade summoned up around it. Warrior gift first, then. Shit.

  “Didn’t you understand them at all? They’re not on yours either!”

  “Whatever they were saying in that ancient tongue didn’t make you happy, I can tell that much. That’s good enough for me.”

  Blind faith in the gods. Ada had wanted better, expected better than this from Isavel - but why? Why should she ever expect anything, from anyone? Everybody failed her - family, friends, lovers, gods -

  Ada raised her gun in response, though her hands were trembling and she was on the verge of tossing it and running away in frustration. “Just back away, Isavel, and let this finish right.”

  “The ghosts need to be banished.” Is
avel took another step forward, and then another. “I will do whatever it takes to protect the people of Glass Peaks, and Hive, and the entire world, from your ghosts.”

  Ada aimed her gun straight at Isavel, trembling. “You don’t have to.”

  “I do.”

  Ada pressed the trigger.

  She swung the gun sideways as it spewed out sticky flame, fanning a wall of fire around her as she backed up through the room. She could only hope that Isavel was not able to -

  Isavel leapt straight over the roaring flames, easily clearing it and sailing through the air with blade and shield ready. She looked like she was floating. What kind of gift let her do that?

  Ada squeezed time and everything became eerily slow, all sound melting away into a quiet background drone. What could she possibly do? Isavel was going to land right on her. The only option was…

  Ada brought her shield to bear and aimed her gun at the same time, course-correcting several times in accelerated thought, and fired. Even so, she only managed a glancing lance of fire across Isavel’s shield before the impact brought them both crashing down to the ground.

  She tried to shove Isavel off, but didn’t send her very far; only the roar of her gun made the Herald scamper further from the crystal. There was a wild and fiery look sculpted into Isavel’s face by the firelight and shadows, but her eyes glinted with something more deeply frustrated.

  Then the hunter’s gift came out, Isavel snapping off a massive blue-white lance of light that slammed into Ada’s shield and made her wobble and stumble. This wasn’t going well.

  Isavel was moving again, and Ada couldn’t hold her back, gunfire raking harmlessly across a broad, wing-like shield that swept down almost her entire profile. Ada wished, for the first time in her life, that she had been born with another gift. They were all so brutish and physical, without the refinement or true power of code… but they were all so fucking useful when it came to situations like this. Code couldn’t fight. Code could move mountains, perhaps, but not…