12 Miles Below

She’s a fucking machine.

Three gods above strike me down, Hecate was a fucking machine.

Worse - she was built almost exactly the same as To’Aacar, only more detailed. Synthetic mechanical muscle composition, reinforced metal structures where the skeleton should be, and electrical chips everywhere, each only vague feelings of purpose that I could only scratch at with my sight. All connected by gold wiring flowing through the shell like veins.

Hecate wasn’t just any machine - she was a fucking Feather. Worse, it looked more like she was an upgrade to that bastard given all the additional features that To'Aacar didn't have. No wonder she knew To'Aacar, he'd been her fucking co-worker all along.

More detail and concepts revealed themselves as my fumbling sight searched with more focus. Just under her throat, a massive, sprawling fractal was well lit and alive. It looked like soul fractal - only mutated with offshoots in strange directions, one of which looked to be a redundant copy. To’Aacar also had a fractal right at his chest, though it looked more like a misshapen flower, with the soul fractal at the center and seven different fractals all grafted on the edges. Hers looked lopsided, incomplete. One of the fractals outright slipped past my sight, as if even looking at it was like looking over the edge of an infinite cliff. The drop going somewhere but nowhere I could tell.

Things all clicked into place and completely fell apart. Her incredible memory and understanding of any topic was obvious now. Mannerisms, feral nature, all of it made sense coming from some machine scrapheap pretending to be human. Wanting to find peace between machines and humanity, more than likely a ploy to get me to put my guard down.

What didn't make sense was the goal. To’Aacar already had parts of the information he was looking for, and he had Kidra to search for the rest.

Fido hadn’t been pretending in his attempts to murder. He fought tooth and tail with everything he had. If the machines needed me alive for anything, why had To'Aacar actually gone all the way and killed me? That asshole doesn’t bluff. Lying to humans is beneath him, and given the few times I'd met him, I genuinely believed him. If it had all been an act - why was Hecate such a terrible actor in comparison? This was far too elaborate when simpler methods existed.

Which left the only other reason - that she'd been honest about her feud with To'Aacar. Could she really be a rogue machine? Or was I just some game piece caught between the two?

Until I knew more, I wasn’t going to walk into all of this blindly and neither was I going to reveal anything else. Gods above, I'd been played this entire time. And all she had to do was call herself Deathless.

My stance stood up, sword sheathed. Hecate quirked her head to the side, confused. “Has there been a change of rules?” She asked, not realizing just what I had discovered.

“Just one.” I said, keeping my tone low. “I know what you are.” Her eyes widened in surprise, confirming that she was hiding something. I had to get a confession out of her. “I know what you’re made of. You can drop the act. I’ve figured it all out.”

A nervous chuckle came from her. “I am unsure about this sense of humor. What should I be answering this line with?”

“This isn’t some bit, Hecate. I know you’re a machine. I’ve been watching and confirmed it just now.”

She took a step back. “A machine? I believe you may be mistaken.”

Her words said one thing, but her actions and nervous demeanor more or less screamed the answer. Hecate was aware of who she was. This wasn't some case where she wasn't aware herself of her nature. I stopped her desperate backpaddling, hand out. “You’re not going to lie your way out of this one anymore. I know.”

Hecate had gone right past my blind spots and I no longer trusted myself or my intuition. I needed someone else here with me. Cathida whistled the moment I unmuted her, clearly having been listening. “Daylight up high, yee faithless little squireling, I told you. Didn't expect her to be a machine of all things, that part's a surprise to me. But my intuition never lies and I knew something reeked like metal in all this. Oh, you can bet I’ll never let you live this down until I’ve squeezed every last gold speck out of it.” She cackled. "Can't believe it. She's a Feather then? That's the only machine I know that looks like a human. The harlot couldn't get any worse."

Hecate's stance faded, blades turning off, hands raised in placation. “Keith, wait - it’s not what you think!”

“It isn’t?” I asked, waving a hand. “Well then, be my gods damned guest. Go right ahead and explain it.”

If she wanted me dead, she could have killed me. So she was after something else. It hadn't been about what I'd seen in the bunker, Kidra could have given them the same info, so it had to be something unique to me. The fractals I'd discovered? Was this how the machines chased down anyone who'd get too close to true power? But why leave me alive this long if the Feathers really did operate as a clean up crew?

“It would be too much to explain all at once if I had started with the truth.” She said, taking a step forward.

“Stop.” I ordered, hand out again. “Stay right where you are. Not a single step more. We’re not moving until you tell me exactly what the fuck is going on.”

She stopped, looked down, looked back up to my side as if avoiding my eyes, seemed to say something before closing her mouth. Indecision gripped her core again. “If I had revealed myself as a machine at the start, would you have traveled with me like so? Or would you have instead schemed plans to destroy me the entire time no matter how much I tried for peace?”

I shrugged. “Can’t tell you what I would or wouldn’t have done. It didn’t happen that way. Maybe I would have listened to you in the first place.”

She took a step forward, eyes going hard. “I deemed that unlikely."

"Don't you dare." I hissed.

Hecate faltered for a moment, gaze shifting off to the side before whatever sense of commitment came right back, eyebrows furled down with determination. "No." She hissed right back, and took another step forward. "You just fought and died against To'Aacar. Another Feather would have continued to trigger your adrenaline responses. You and I both know how you would have reacted if I'd told you the truth at the start. I would have been branded an enemy from the start.”

I took a hesitant step backwards, feeling a little silly about that the moment I did. As if I could outrun a Feather, especially one with gods damned wings. No, whatever resolution was going to happen, it wasn't going to be done with blades and I wasn't going to back out like a coward. I brought my foot back to my side and planted it firmly on the ground, glaring her down.

Daring her to keep the advance.

“How did you find out?” She asked, taking another damned step forward.

“I’m not answering that.” I said. “I'm not answering anything anymore. You’re answering my questions first. Who are you.”

She shook her head, next step faltering. “I-I can’t tell you that.”

I said nothing, folding my hands across my chest. She stayed still a few meters away now.

“Journey wants to take the peaceful route here,” Cathida whispered out, as if it pained her to even say this. “Personally, if it were up to me, I'd say cut off her head and then make her talk on the way to the city or die trying. Her skull would make for a good incense burner, too. But I'd be kissing purple if I said that was the safest option right now. I need you to live through this deary. So I can properly gloat, you see.”

A little morbid.

“And when were you planning on telling me?” I asked, staring down the Feather. “Three years from now over tea? Or after you'd gotten whatever you were looking for?”

“I couldn't find the right time!” Hecate yelled, angry now, taking a few more steps forward. She stopped, looking down at her feet. “No, no, that’s... that's not correct. I was hesitating on the decision to explain to you everything. Deciding if I should simply leave everything behind and start anew elsewhere.”

Into the soul fractal I dove, and a tendril reached for Cathida. I needed to talk to her where Hecate couldn't overhear. This close she was going to hear even the faintest whispers.

Deep down, I could feel Journey's soul accept the connection. It was worried. The last time it's user had fought a Feather, the ending had left scars and painful memories deep down. It wanted to run and knew like I did that wouldn't work. There was no escaping Hecate. Panic was welling up, deep down under.

Can you tell if she’s lying?

The armor paused on it's spiral. Thinking. Affirmative. Initial suspicions generated by detecting abnormalities in speech patterns for prior topics.

What, it wasn’t Cathida’s intuition?

Negative. Intuition undefined.

That lying gold obsessed weasel. Journey had already fed Cathida the answers, and of course Cathida pretended it was all her mysterious intuition that solved the riddle. Because that’s what the real Cathida would have done with a tip off like that.

Confirmation of Target Hecate’s omissions prove prior detections reliable. Confidence high.

In other words, Hecate had lied before. Journey caught it, but didn’t know if it was truly a lie or not. And now my armor had a baseline to compare to.

“Hecate.” I said. “Are you truly on a mission for the mites?”

She nodded. “I am an apostate for them.”

Authenticity at ninety-four percent. The armor sent. Most likely true then.

"You don't serve Relinquished or the machines?"

"I am... unlikely to be welcome by Mother anymore, not once she finds out what I've done."

"What you've done?"

"I've..." She stopped, looking back down at her feet. "Feathers are built to be loyal only to Relinquished. I was different. Even if I haven't taken any overt actions against her or her forces yet, my involvement with the mites changes things. I do not believe she will see me as an ally anymore."

Journey? I whispered in my mind.

Authenticity at ninety-seven percent.

So she's been burned in some way from the machine collective.

“You’re not with Relinquished, and I'm betting your not with Tsuya, or else you'd have told me already. What are you doing then?”

“I... I don’t know.” She said, looking exactly as lost as her words. “My personal purpose has recently become muddled.”

“Fine. What do the mites here actually want? Is that prophecy scrapshit you fed me a lie or something real?”

Hecate’s eyes lost a bit of luster, hands defensively going to her sides. “It is real. However I don't know what they want." She could tell I wasn't happy with that answer, her hand going up already, trying to placate me before I could speak. "Please, the prophecy I shared with you is unabridged, you know as much as I know! I was honest when I explained my need to find them again. I can't do it the same way as I did before, it was too direct and Mother may spot me this time.”

Authenticity at ninety-six percent. The armor sent. Another truth. So far she really hadn't tried to lie about anything, or Journey's abilities were being fooled.

And it made sense in a way that the mites would work with someone like her. If I were the mites and needed some chosen hero to act as an agent, why pick a human? Why pick even a Deathless when a Feather was a possible choice? Had they been looking for a Feather to convert? Had they somehow subverted her design when she'd been built? She did look different than To'Aacar. Or was this just a lucky string of events they'd been waiting for?

“If there's any chance of trust between us ever again, I need to know more about how you ended up working for the mites. Tell me exactly what you did to switch sides.”

She froze in place, like one of the underground critters caught in headlights. “I tried to heal a human that was dying. Someone I considered a close friend. The mites offered me that power, but in exchange I need to accomplish their demands. This happened a few days ago, and I haven’t been locked out of the machine archives yet. However, the discovery is inevitable. It is only a matter of days at best. Hours, I suspect, is more likely.”

Authenticity at ninety-four percent.

“Why are you spending any time around a random human like me if you’re on a deadline like that?” Now I was both upset and confused. If her situation was as dire as she told it, why was she even spending a moment more trying to talk to me even now?

“Keith, please understand." She said, more a whisper now. "Everything I know is going to be gone, the people I met, the friends I have - I need to distance myself from them all to keep them safe from the fallout. There's only one person who could stay at my side, if you were...” She stopped, and tried again. "There are so few people I have left that I can turn to now. I was reaching out anywhere I could find a friend."

“You thought I could be a friend?” I snapped out. "Why? I don't know you."

It was like kicking a puppy. She looked absolutely wretched. “But, you said we were…”

My tongue lashed out before I could stop myself. “Yeah - that was before I found out you’ve been lying to me this entire fucking time! Some friend you are.”

The flash of anger passed through me, and all that was left behind was ash. Here I was having a yelling match about betrayed friendships, with a Feather of all things, who very well could be the first machine traitor I've ever met. If she was honest, she could be the single biggest turning point to human history. And here I was yelling her down only because I felt angry instead of in control.

What would Father had done? Continued being angry, or seen the bigger picture? It was in times of danger that he was most in control of himself. And I had to be the same.

I took a few stabilizing breaths and raised a hand, calling for a truce. Fix up the damage first, figure out the truth later. In the end, I was just a surface scavenger with a bit of power. Lejis, technically my fucking enemy, had been prepared to throw his entire life away just on a miniscule chance of peace. I was in the position of something far more important. Was my resolve weaker than his? What if she truly was the first machine Feather to have turned her back on Relinquished?

“I'm sorry." I sighed, pushing down my feelings. "I want to believe that you mean well Hecate. I get what you’re saying about having nothing. I’ve been through that before.”

The desperate need to connect with someone - anyone - when things are crashing around you. That had been most of my childhood, come to think of it. Led me to befriending some real oddballs over the years, even people I didn't ever want to meet or even see. If that's what she's going through right now, it made sense to me.

“I don’t know if we’re still friends or not right now,” I said, being honest. “But we can still be allies and rebuild a friendship again. Just right now, I’m on edge with all this. You need to understand that.”

Hecate nodded quickly, taking a few more steps forward until she stood nearly within arm's reach. “I do understand. Give me a chance to prove that I’m not the enemy.” She said, hope rekindling in her voice. “I… I can still take you to the Undersider city! I can fly you there and we can postpone our duel for another time, if ever.”

Getting to the city fast would mean getting back in touch with Kidra. Gods, she’d be so much better at handling this sort of conflict.

Hecate took one last step and reached a hand out to me.

History was rarely made by sane decisions. Sometimes the leaps of faith were worth it. This felt like one such moment to me where things changed. I just needed to change with it.

My hand reached out and clasped hers back.

An unworded truce formed between us, at least for the first few hours. When Hecate said she could fly us to the city, I’d expected it to be using the hover sled, with her using the wings to move it, like we'd done earlier except without having to use the poles this time.

No, Hecate was far more literal about that. After a little awkward fumbling around, she took hold of my chest, stretched her wings out and leaped into the air. In a power move that bullied physics, she didn’t come back down after the jump.

I’d flown before with Teed in the cockpit of his ships. Gods, sometimes doing a jump with Journey felt like flying as well, if only for a short amount of time. Hecate showed me what it was like to fly like a bird would.

It was really something. I’d have enjoyed it far more if I hadn’t all these thoughts floating in my head and the sinking feeling I was being carried off like a chicken to the slaughter.

She was fast as well, the ground below us zipped past while she soared above. A testament to the strength a Feather’s body could handle, holding me with two hands, right by my underarms, with no sign of any struggle. Journey was a relic armor weighing over four hundred pounds, and I added to that sum as well. That she didn’t need to wrap her hands or arms was something.

“You know, one thing I still haven’t figured out.” I said, over the rush of air. “Why me? Why save some random surface knight? I know you mentioned earlier you were just looking for friends anywhere you could find them. What tipped you off to me? Just happened to spot me out of everyone To’Aacar was fighting and decided I was a good start point?”

“...Intuition.” She said cryptically.

Authenticity at eleven percent. Journey whispered through the soul fractal. A lie. She knew me or knew about me somehow. I was missing some key here.

Or maybe it was a lot more straightforward than I thought. She was clearly afraid of To'Aacar. And there's one person so far that had a track record of mauling him into a retreat. That was certainly something to put me above a random surface knight.

“If this is about To'Aacar and the facelift I gave him...” I said, not sure how I could press her for answers. "Well, in the spirit of honesty, it was a one-time thing. Round two ended with me getting a hole punched through my armor and guts. You might have banked on the wrong human here if your goal is to kill the bastard.”

She kept her eyes on the horizon, steering us through the wide plains and strange ecosystems under us. "My chances of defeating him are low, even with you to assist. No, if I can, I aim to avoid him entirely."

"Can't blame you there. He's not the pleasant sort to be around. Recommend not inviting him to any future parties you host, he'll bring down the mood."

The landscape zipped by and I changed the topic to something more lighthearted, asking her questions about the Underground in general and things that she learned from the people here.

That was a lot better to talk about, all things considered. Hours passed but in the background, I was quietly scheming how I’d be able to pin her down and get her to answer the rest of my questions. My plan so far was to get her into a room, close the door behind her, and throw my sister at her face. A wild Kidra could do some serious damage on anyone trying to hide secrets.

Before I knew it, we were slowing down for a landing. The surroundings here had grown far more bleak. Dense clouds of dark black-ish blue flowed by the ceiling, concealing everything except whenever sparks of lighting struck out.

Massive rock slabs floated around, like the ground was filled with plates all connected in different places. Ruins of bridges dotted the empty spaces between each plate like snapped muscle fibers. Worse, all the rocks were grey and lifeless. Not even moss grew anywhere here.

And all around were these freakishly large pillars, some broken, others intact. By large - I mean massive. There were miles of this terrain, and I could clearly see the pillars from any distance.

Strange place for a city to exist. I’d have thought the mite forest earlier was far more welcoming.

We’d landed near one such pillar, which seemed to have some yellow lights around the base. “Beyond this plate, further north, you’ll find a roadway." Hecate said. "Follow the path and you’ll reach the city gates. The Undersider city is housed inside those pillars. They’re all hollow, and plant life lives within all of them.”

“You say that like you’re not coming with me?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. Bringing you here safely was the bargain...” She shook her head. "I need to go. The longer I stay, the more chance whatever befalls me will impact anyone around. I... I still have one more thing I need to give back to you and Kidra. Something I shouldn't have taken, however I need the guidance right now. Forgive me for being selfish and holding onto it. Once everything is done, I swear I will find a way to return it to you both."

“Hang on, before any cryptic speeches and other ominous red flags that make me think you're about to go on a suicide mission, I still need help finding my sister in a city I've never been in. I’ll be all alone in there.” I said, stalling for time here. "You really going to do that to me, after all we've made up?"

Strictly speaking, I could probably find my sister one way or another. Maybe make a mess, accidentally knock over someone’s beer or set fire to the local statues. Small things to draw her attention.

The main point is that I seriously needed to get her in the same room as Kidra. She'd know what the hell to do in this situation. I'm just an engineer, I work with math, metal and machinery, and she's a... On second thought, scratch that, terrible analogy. My point is that I don't do people stuff well. And this was people stuff, even if she was a machine.

Hecate on her part seemed to think, gaze falling off to my side as if looking for guidance from the city behind me. Before she could answer, occult pulsed around, right before the two of us.

“You certainly took your time." A figure said, stepping out of the occult mist. "Oh, am I interrupting something?" He gave a wide grin to Hecate."And look who we have here. I see you’ve brought me the Winterscar personally, all wrapped up and served on a plate. Even healed up, so I can have the pleasure of killing him a second time." To’Aacar said, that grin deepening into something far more twisted.

"How… thoughtful of you, my dear little sister.”

Next chapter - The true fight (T)

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