12 Miles Below

Wrapped up feet walked across the paveled stone grounds. She hadn’t been able to find sandals. Or any kind of footwear. It seems humans did not keep such items outside to dry off, and Tenisent had no ideas to offer, clearly out of his depth as well. So To’Wrathh had to make do with strips of linen cloth from a destroyed towel she’d cut with her blades. She wasn’t quite happy with the result. No traction or grip, it made her feel uneasy. If a fight occurred, she would be at a great disadvantage.

For the last few hours, she’d been aimlessly walking the empty alleys and streets, simply mapping out the city. Tenisent walked at her side, keeping pace, occasionally pointing her down another pathway away from possible contact with people, but otherwise remaining quiet. As if equally learning the lay of the land as she did. The Feather didn’t have the energy to doubt him right now, instead she found herself mostly brooding on the results of the war.

Where had she gone wrong? The attack had been planned out perfectly. She’d struck back when they had been deprived of the majority of their knights, after their failed early assault. By all calculations, she should have easily stormed past their gateway and gone right into the city heart.

The only result she could come up with was simple tactical skill on the enemy commander, General Zaang. He had fought well. Without logistics to handle due to the single day nature of the battle, a huge facet of war slipped away. The fight had been a singular event and point. None of the soldiers on the opposing side had required resupplies, rest or even food rations. Those had all been pre-supplied before the start of the action. Humans could operate under stress for several days before breaking down. The solution then to force logistics back into the equation, would be to continue the assault and make sure the humans never re-took ground outside their gates. In doing so, the next attack would start directly at the witching hour, when the pillar was down.

She’d walked far enough away from her initial starting point. Time had passed. The humans were likely far less on the hunt for rogue signals now, especially in her more remote location. To’Wrathh opened up her system’s communications suites, and began to verify the integrity of what had happened.

Reports began to ping back, and she sorted through the aftermath. With her out of command, her army’s cohesion had broken down. They had never assigned a backup commander, nor a chain of command. A weakpoint she had been blind too, clearly.

Her other forces had each reverted to their original instincts. The Runners had reformed into smaller hunting groups, and scattered away. The older, and smarter ones had continued with her tools and training, gathering under the command of Yrob, who led them to safety. Those survived the aftermath, stalking the lands. The others had been chased out, either destroyed or forced to turn away.

Serpents, what few of them remained, slunked away, and began to pepper the surrounding area with acid, breaking down smaller human structures and abandoned defenses.

All her spiders had retreated back to their nests, carrying whatever was theirs by right. Usually prizes and scraps of broken tanks or other trinkets to hoard in their dens.

Her behemoths had all been dispatched, including the last one. Even with their size and power, they had been mere obstacles to Kidra and the flying knights she’d come with.

The next attack would require more planning and strategy if she was to win. In the meantime, she sent a command to Yrob to continue keeping the humans penned inside their gatehouse and siege the whole construction. The pillar repels machines, but it didn't repel weapons fire. More behemoths would be made and sent out, to continue peppering the failing gatehouse with more holes for future entry, and force the city onto the defensive. Keeping them from rebuilding and repairing the current damage was important.

There was one thing that remained stuck in To’Wrathh’s mind, through and through. The unity fractal had been shut off. Her mother’s eyes and ears had been blinded and deafened. The pillar likely targeted anything that carried that fractal, but it hadn’t been lethal to her soul fractal for some reason, unlike the other machines that had charged in with her. The Chosen had been able to walk through the gates without issue, but they were mostly human so that hadn’t been a surprise. She wasn’t sure why the pillar had spared her, and only her.

Without the unity fractal looming over her mind, anything To’Wrathh did here and now could be scrubbed away digitally such that no report would ever be unearthed. The thought grew, larger and larger until it was the only thing she could think about.

There was a thrill to it, even despite the crushing defeat she’d been handed by the stubborn humans. Until the city fell, To’Wrathh was… free of her mother’s supervision.

Perhaps the invasion didn’t need to be accomplished so quickly. There was value in reconnaissance and intelligence after all. And the best source of information is gathered and verified personally. The more To’Wrathh considered her situation, the more she came to the conclusion that she’d ended up exactly where she should be. Deep behind enemy territory and perfectly hidden among their number. If Yrob and the machine army did their work correctly, the next week's war would begin right at the city doorsteps against a completely crushed in gatehouse. A far more easy matchup. In effect, victory was within reach already. Only, delayed by a single week. Everything was still on plan.

She turned and set off with a spring in her step, for where the humans concentrated the most. Her mind going through all the possible aspects of humanity she could witness and learn from firsthand. Such knowledge would surely come in handy.

Every step she took, it felt like she became more comfortable with the streets and the city. The battle was over. There was nothing to do for now but wait the week out for her future victory. Her disguise was perfect. From anyone else’s perspective, she was simply another human walking around the city. In under an hour, she’d found herself at the docks. Revelers, all shouting and many clearly drunk, flocked around the place. It was deeper into the night, nearly half a day since the victory, and the full celebration was ebbing on the slowdown as the drunks fell asleep. Some people had already crashed on the sides of the walls, letting the world pass by them in a dizzy haze. She passed by them, drawing an odd number of looks from the slightly more sober.

It was interesting to see the humans in their natural environment. Laughing, dancing, cheering, all kinds of emotions passing over their face. To’Wrathh walked through the center street, eyes constantly looking around to take in the strange alien sight. A man bumped into her, holding his belly all the while. “Heyyya sweetlin’, why the hood? Hidin’ them pretty eyes of yours or something? Want me to buy ya a drink?”

Another hand wrapped around her shoulder, and a woman’s voice spoke. “That’s my sister, she’s always been shy about her face. Enjoy the festival my friend, see you around!”

Audio recognition software had identified the woman’s voice from the very first word. A warmth had spread through To’Wrathh a moment after, as if she’d expected to have been found like this, despite the low probability.

Tamery dragged her away, looking mildly worried.

The man, on the other hand, was not quite so happy with the turn of events. "Hey, I'm still talkin' and your sister can say yes or no for herself. Quit being such a noseit."

Tamery's hand dragged her away. "Sorry, we really need to be going right now, enjoy the festival."

The man's hand reached out, grabbing To'Wrathh's own arm. "Come on, don't be such a sheltered prude. It's celebrating time! Scrapheads are all dead, city's going to live another week! I'll buy you both a drink,"

"Don't make a scene, plenty of other people to hit on." Tamery hissed. "Read between the lines already."

"I'm reading plenty, yer just a controlling sister talkin' over everyone."

Tenisent hovered nearby. "Break his wrist." The ghost suggested. "It would be child's play for you."

To'Wrathh observed how the man held her arm, but she didn't quite trust the ghost's suggestion blindly. "May I break his wrist?" She asked Tamery instead. "He does not seem to want to let go of his own accord. It would be a possible solution to this."

That instantly froze the conversation. The man seemed confused for a moment, and Tamery took the moment to speak. "Look buddy, I'm not trying to protect my sister from you. I'm trying to protect you from my sister. She's not... well in the head okay? She's a danger. Shouldn't be out on the street in the first place. You know, not completely hinged in the head." She tapped her head with a finger a few times, as if communicating something to the man. "One moment she's normal, and the next she'll be clawing your face off if you say the wrong thing."

The man paused, and then looked To'Wrathh up and down with drunken stupor. Observing her dress and hand-crafted shoes. Then, as if realizing something profound, finally let go, taking a step back. "Oh." He said. "Oh shit. Sorry. She do look a little crazy. What a shame."

Tenisent grumbled, crossing spectral arms together. "What a shame." He agreed, for very different reasons.

To'Wrathh, on the other hand, frowned, turning to Tamery. "But I am in perfect command of my faculties." She said, indignant.

“I know that!” Tamery hissed under her breath, dragging the Feather out of the street and away from the man. "But he doesn't need to know that, and it made him give up - without having to actually break his wrist. See?"

"... You have a point." To'Wrathh admitted. The situation had been resolved. She had other things to be curious about anyhow. "How did you find me? This is far quicker than I had predicted. I assumed I would need to search and find you first." This was a little puzzling but she was still happy to have already connected with a friendly face.

“I knew you’d pull something half baked - exactly like this! I should have bet the others money on hindsight. Goddess damn it, that would have been easy money! Damn my morals. You even have a hood and everything, could you possibly be more stereotypical?!”

“This hood hides my features.” To’Wrathh countered. Then she paused for a moment, thinking. “And I look very good in it.”

Tamery stopped, turned, and stared. “Okay.” she said, hand running down her forehead, and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Okay. Yep, that one’s on me. My fault. I should never have told you what humor was. Noone wears a hood at this time of day, you bucket of bolts for a head! You're adorable, but you're going to get yourself caught at this rate.” The human tugged some more at To’Wrathh’s hand. “Now we’ve gotta get out of here fast before people start asking questions.”

“The celebrations here are the best source of intelligence I can collect. Staying here and observing the festivities might further my goals.”

“Intelligence?” Tamery looked back at the crowds shouting and hollering to one another. “What in the twelve hells are you planning on learning from that? How to drink three shots and stand on a toe? How to win a catcalling competition?”

“That might have relevance in a future campaign in ways we do not yet know. All knowledge is worth pursuit.”

Tamery didn’t answer for a moment, before rubbing her eyes with one hand in another desperate attempt to wipe the sleep away. “I can’t believe I’m actually arguing, with a machine, about stranger danger. Not even half a day after the attack! I swear to the goddess, if I’m not here to look after you, what sort of trouble would you literally walk yourself into?” Tamery turned to glare up at the taller Feather, like an older sister scolding her misbehaving sibling. “And don’t you dare pout at me!" Her hands snapped out to To'Wrathh's cheeks and squeezed on instinct. "Wait." She paused, "How in the goddesses do you even know what a pout is?!”

That… distracted the Feather. She didn't know what a pout was, but apparently her facital subroutines had decided to run with that. To’Wrathh let herself be dragged by Tamery in the meantime, pondering on her words. It only took a quick dictionary search to find the definition of pouting, and an angry followup query to discover what misbehaving subroutine thought it would be funny to send that command through.

Of course, all she found under the software layer was simple logic which concluded that this was the single most accurate emotion to display, to a high degree of certainty with a high degree of precision as well. None of her CMOS systems were trying to be funny. Her virtual subconscious ruled it understood her more than she understood herself, which troubled To’Wrathh in a strange abstract manner she had no words to describe. She pouted further at the revelation instead.

The next To’Wrathh noticed, Tamery had dragged her to a house, knocked on the door, and slipped inside. The room was lowly lit, and surrounded by a few others. Chosen. She recognized all of them, Tamery’s personal friends and coworkers.

“I found her.” Tamery said without any preamble, taking off her shoes and putting them to the side, along with her jacket. “You guys can call off the search.”

There was a silent moment as the people inside had stopped their activities and stared. Maps had been printed out and posted up on the walls, along with red strings and written out notes. Circles and crossed out sections. The room seemed to be holding its breath. To’Wrathh tilted her head slightly in confusion. “Greetings.” She said. “I am online and functioning.”

That seemed to dispel the air. People bussed around again, moving to grab supplies or to take down the maps. “Where was she? I had my group look all over the slums and nobody saw anything.” One of the men in the back said, nursing a cup of water. “I was half convinced the black market really did take her. How did you find her?”

“I found her by the edge of the festival of course, right at the entrypoint from the slums. She more or less made a straight line there.” Tamery said. “Didn’t I tell you Markus? Think the worst possible place for her to stumble into and multiply it by a factor of five. It had to be the docks. She was the single most suspicious looking person walking around.”

The people around gave To’Wrathh worried looks. “Lady To’Wrathh,” A smaller girl said in a tiny voice, approaching with a damp cloth. “Please be more careful, you need a guide to help you in this city.” The girl reached up on her toes and helped wipe off some lingering soot on the Feather's cheeks. Another human had come to her right and was motioning for her to remove the cloak.

“We need to get her an actual disguise. A better dress for a start. And shoes come to think of it.” Tamery said, looking down at the wrapped up feet. “Angria, didn’t you buy a skirt and blouse combination yesterday? Do you think it’ll fit?”

The girl Tamery had been talking to was already bounding up the ladder to the second floor, “I’ll go grab it now! It’ll look so much better than a hood!”

“The hood was practical.” To’Wrathh frowned. “There was no alternative to hiding my hair.” She found herself holding some kind of fondness for the clothing. It was, after all, the first bits of human clothing she’d ever worn in her life. There was some kind of sentimentality to it.

“You’re both the smartest and most senseless girl I’ve ever met. A real enigma, you know? It’s like the gods flip a coin anytime you make a decision on anything.” Tamery sighed, rubbing her eyes for the third time in a day. And then she pointed at To’Wrathh’s feet. “You can literally change your features to a ridiculous degree. Add new feet? Why not? More wings? Sure, bring them on, give yourself a set of six, add a bunch of eyes to them if it strikes your fancy. You even told me you rearranged your internal organs before, tossed in vocal cords down your throat! Why not just command your hair to turn blond?”

“Oh.” To’Wrathh said, as the room went quiet. “.... That hadn’t occurred to me.”

Like she’d punctured the tension from the room, the silence melted away into chuckles and then outright laughing. “That’s okay.” Tamery said to her side. “You’re outside your element here. But that’s where we come in. We’ve got you back here safe and sound, so the worst is thankfully passed us. Now, what do we do from here?”

To’Wrathh thought. “The attack failed. And within two weeks, my elder brother To’Aacar will no doubt return underground to check on my progress. If the city is not in our control at that point, he will likely wage a war of annihilation.” She wasn’t quite sure what would happen to herself at that point. To’Aacar did not suffer failure. “The city must surrender, and soon. I will need options from here.”

The mention of their former master brought a shiver to everyone present. They’d known who he was, and the cruelty that came with him. None wanted to return to that.

“Well, askin’ them to just surrender again isn’t gonna work.” An elderly man in the back said. “Need to wait a few more days for the reality of the situation to start weighing on them again. They survived the first wave, but they know deep down they won’t have that much chances for the second. Very first attack and the Lady nearly got to their pillar in fifteen minutes. And this was at their single most prepared moment. The next round they won’t have even half the advantages they had this time, and the people know it. Problem is that morale is at an all time high right now, even if they all know in the back of their heads it’s over. What do we do against that?”

“We keep doing what we’ve been doing so far.” Tamery said. “There’s a lot of us all around. We can continue looking for the deserters, the people who can see the writing on the wall. When the time’s right, we’ll call on all of them and storm the pillar.”

“That hasn’t been workin’ out so far.” The man said. “Nobody trusts the machines are going to stick to their side of the bargain.”

“Maybe they need to speak to one directly.” Tamery said. “And we just happen to have the best one here. Gather them all up a few days from now, we’ll introduce To’Wrathh directly, and she can make her case in person. It’s one thing to get reassurances from faraway strangers, it’s another to hear it directly from the grand leader herself.”

That got some nods of approval. “What is Lady To’Wrathh going to do in the meantime? I don’t think we can convince her to stay inside for long.” A woman said to the side. She coughed. “I mean no offence of course, Lady To’Wrathh. But we’ve all long known about your.. Ah, curiosity.”

“I am not sure what you mean.” To’Wrathh said, bemused. “Your statement is factually accurate.”

Tamery grinned, giving her a quick hug while laughing. “Of course you'd say that." She turned to the rest of the room. "While you lot deal with getting people together, I’m going to socialize our fearless leader here. We’re in the center of the city, I think it’s time our Lady had a day off and got to see some of the better parts of life.”

Next chapter - In which To'Wrathh has a wholesome day off

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