Chapter 6: Skilled (2/2)
Viv opened the sliding thing and took the crystal and its hose. She had to reduce her distance to the carriage to stay in range of the core, an issue she solved by rolling the rope around herself.
Moving and charging proved difficult at first. She stumbled a few times, and lost the connection as well. Eventually, however, she finally received a good surprise.
You have reached Meditative Trance Intermediate 1. You are now able to meditate while performing simple, repetitive tasks.
Passing the threshold made a major difference. She felt something help her, something that had become a part of her as intimate as breathing. It was eerie that something so new could feel so natural, and it left her to wonder how she could have worked without magic before. It made her wonder what heights of competency the men and women of this world could achieve with time and determination. And a bit of luck, she supposed.
Despite the skill’s progress, it became increasingly difficult to keep her focus. Fatigue made her stumble after a few minutes.
//This is far enough. You can place the hose back into the panel.
Suspicion immediately arose.
“What do you mean, far enough?
//There was a necrach buried twenty paces to your right.
//Your black mana emissions completely masked your presence.
“What?! So close? And you did not think to warn me?” she sputtered in anger.
//This unit will not share data when the sharing has a likely negative impact on your chances of survival.
“I have a right to know!”
//This unit apologizes. This unit cannot knowingly and under any circumstances endanger a member in good standing of the imperial family.
//This directive is hard-coded.
“Damn it. I got saddled with a rogue AI…” Viv muttered to herself.
As she packed the hose, a thought occurred to her.
“Hey, you had a pretty low power reserve. Are you at risk of shutting down?”
//This unit now has over fifty days of operation at current energy level.
//The integrated power core was designed to allow me to function for ten seconds at maximum combat efficiency after my main power core was disabled.
//It can be further charged.
//However, this unit is no longer at risk of failing.
“Good for you,”
//This unit will still perish if you are disabled, Your Grace.
//Please take care of yourself.
“I’m trying!”
More meditation. More moving stuff around. Viv received several notifications that her mana manipulation was improving, but it was at the lowest stage possible and progress would be exponentially harder the more she learnt, so that was not impressive. The joy and pleasure at doing actual magic was ruined by her constant headache and fever. The pain seeped into every aspect of her life. It took all of her self-control not to snap at the golem every time it opened its metaphoric mouth.
Not that emitting black smoke from one’s fingertip was anything to write home about. At best it was a party trick that would leave the victim feeling sick to their stomach.
//Black mana is associated with death, change, shadows, and destruction.
//It is not inherently evil.
“Right.”
//However its practice used to be frowned upon in many cultures.
“Of fucking course.”
//That is what some of the books in my data store confirmed.
“The engineers stored books in the golem’s memories?”
//That is correct.
//Some of the content was made available to the golems’ processing unit, their core.
//Some of the books were stored separately.
//Engineers used to connect magical screens to view the data.
“How much erotica do you have?”
//Less than 2% of all books are erotica.
“Wow, that is surprisingly low.”
//This unit did not need twenty-six copies of “The School of Hard Knobs,” and eighteen of “Lady Stiffyni and her three daughters”
//Redundant content was expunged.
“Hahaha I bet. Is there any nice girl on girl or boy on boy action?”
//Records indicate that the ‘Gladiators of Harrak’ series was a reference on the subject.
//This unit has tomes one through eight stored on its database.
“Ok, just keep everything. I might want to study it later for, uh, research purposes. Understanding the local culture.”
//Understood, Your Grace.
//However, without access to a viewing screen, I would have to dictate them to you.
Ew ew ew. No. Not even if he could take the voice of Hugh Jackman.
“Ok, going back to black mana. How is that affecting me? How bad is it?”
//Please keep in mind that there are no recorded occurrences of a monochromatic human.
//The fact that the mana is black should not have too much negative influence on your body.
//However, if you do not obtain a secondary alignment, you will be limited to casting black mana and arcane spells.
“Pure energy?”
//This is for much later, Your Grace.
“Right, I’ll focus.”
Damn that fever.
//Most spellcasters, even the modest ones, can cast a simple healing spell.
//There is no reasonable way for you to obtain life-attuned mana.
//You will not be able to heal yourself.
//Additionally, healing spells may have a reduced effect on you.
“That sucks.”
//Not to worry.
//With my training, you will soon join the ranks of powerful mages.
//We will find a way to solve this issue before your attunement reaches half of your total.
“Good to know.”
//...And your organs fail.
“What?”
//...This unit is reasonably certain that your body will turn part-elemental at this junction.
//It has happened to archmages before.
//Some of them survived the process. Rejoice!
“You can stop comforting me now. Thank you.”
The city wall to her left was becoming increasingly more ragged as she walked on. Stones were missing from the top, and debris now appeared on occasion across the dunes. Some of them, the size of houses.
“Hey, what happens when someone reaches the highest level of attunement?”
//They become the next god of magic.
Solfis’ tone alway grew more quiet as he spoke of the gods. Viv did not know if it was true reverence, or if the golem used human emotions as a facade.
They reached the end of the city far earlier than planned, because the city ended earlier than planned.
“Wah…”
The walls were now shattered ruins, only fragments remaining here and there where a bigger structure had blocked some of the blast.
Viv had thought that most of the damage had been done by the fallout, and while it was probably true for the land, such was not the case for the city,
The entire south side of Harrak was…
Well…
It was gone.
There were no other words for it. She had to stop to appreciate the complete destruction that had torn apart the titanic building and flown its remains across the land, leaving nothing intact in its passage. The center of the city was a vast crater as large as that of a volcano. There was nothing left, nothing but peeled off land exposing the bony foundations below. It was as if the black maw of the imperial palace’s wound had vomited death, and was now patiently swallowing its slain prey over the eons. Necrarchs covered the open ground like worms on a corpse. They squirmed and swarmed in a multitude of grotesque forms without purpose, macabre reminders of the consequences of uncontrolled magic. The cold realization sent a chill up Viv’s spine. It froze her heart through the fever and broke her concentration. Her pace hastened.
Solfis remained silent when they left the rotting capital behind, even as dunes now fought with stone to stop her progress. It was then that she knew for certain that the golem had surpassed its nature at some point in the centuries of solitude it… no, he, had been subjected to. She herself was emotionally detached from the catastrophe. It had happened to other people, a long time ago, long before she came to this world. Only personal grief — or whatever equivalent the strange being was now feeling — could justify his silence.
Harrak disappeared behind a hill as the sky was turning dark.
“Should we stop here?” she finally asked.
//No.
//There is a waystation a bit further.
//Even if only the walls remain, they should provide you with a much needed shelter.
“Okay.”
The road snaked between hills. It might have been fields, or it might have been forest, or perhaps the area south of the city was a slum that extended to the horizon. There was no way to know, and she would not ask the golem.
She found the shelter a bit farther and waited until Solfis made sure there were no signs of undead. Its top half had collapsed outward, but the first floor remained and Solfis guided her to a sandy basement where a circle of silvery metal remained. He had her push mana out of her hands, trying to cover each finger in turn with black smog until she felt drained and tired. The circle was a mana isolation circuit meant to isolate the person inside from mana in the air. Sleeping here would reduce the speed at which the fallout would kill her. Solfis had optimized her trip.
“Hey,” she started with her head on a rolled-up sleeping bag she used as a pillow.
//Yes, Your Grace?
“You okay?”
//I am fully operational.
//There are many new parameters I need to take into consideration.
//They concern the best path to follow to guarantee your survival.
//This unit appreciates your concern, Your Grace.
“Sorry about Harrak. I know you were trying to protect it.”
//This unit knew the state it was in.
//Do not worry.
“Do you mind if I refer to you as male?”
//Not at all.
//Now rest, you have a long journey tomorrow.
//We must reach the Lanneis slave pens within two days.
Viv did as ordered and closed her eyes. The presence of slave pens orbited her tired, feverish mind and joined other elements she had observed.
The palace was a monument to megalomania.
Solfis had mentioned subjugated lands.
Solfis had mentioned inferior cultures.
Solfis was a freaking war golem.
Harrak had been destroyed in a black magic event that had turned the entire population into monsters.
The various ideas crystallized into a theory.
It finally occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, the ancient Harrakans might have been assholes.