12 Miles Below

Yrob slowed to a walk reaching the Lady's side, long hands used ahead to keep him stable with the slower loping gait. He'd arrived on her command. The city was near deserted at this time of night, the empty streets passing them by with little lighting. To'Wrathh had a destination in mind, two in fact. But there was only one of her, so she needed someone else to reach the second.

“You call? What need?” The Runner asked.

There was something To’Wrathh had been hesitant to breach. A subject that seemed to always be pushed back. Walking down the empty streets before them, To’Wrathh realized she couldn’t delay this any longer. Her people had a right to choose their own fate. Many of them would be dragged into this simply by being subordinates to her. If she failed to find a way to connect with Tsuya, at the very least she should let the machines under her command choose their own fate.

“Yrob,” She said, carefully picking the words. “Please define the current opinion of the pale lady among Runners.”

The old Runner continued his walk without change. “She is mother.” He simply said.

“Are you… how would you react if Mother grew unhappy with... my status?”

“Pale Lady, upset with you?” He asked. It wasn’t an accusation, more curiosity. His mind quickly came to the only reason Relinquished could be angry. “To’Aacar not good.” Yrob said firmly. “He attack. You defend. Mother will understand.”

To’Wrathh considered the argument. She’d told Relinquished she had accomplished her objective and had thrown To’Aacar into the scraps at the same time. But once Mother investigated the city, she surely would uncover the truth. She’d won a stay of execution for the humans here claiming they were test subjects, but once she evacuated the city, the traces left behind would be obvious.

“To’Aacar attacking me is likely not the issue. What I expect mother will not accept is that I decided to let the humans in the city live.” And escape. But that went unsaid.

The Runner paused, thinking. “Then Mother not happy with us too. I like humans. I like cooking. You share taste with us.”

“Yrob, I need this to be clear. If mother deems us all in error, she will seek to eliminate you. Do you feel no fear at this?”

Yrob thought for a moment, then gave a head boggle. “No Runner runs forever. Few Runners eat food. Better to run as part of the few.”

That seemed a deeper answer then what To’Wrathh had expected from Yrob. It took her by suprise, the logic came from a different angle.

Keith had constantly called her a glutton, the least picky eater he’d ever met. On her end, To’Wrathh couldn’t understand how humans could find anything not tasty, and neither could all the Runners or other machine models she’d shared with. It was one key difference between machines and humans. Or at least one of the larger differences.

By sharing her newly created sense of taste with the Runners, she was granting an entire sense category they’d never possessed before. Everything tasted unique.

Had that been worth the danger? She wasn’t sure, but realized there was an easy way to find out. The feather turned her head to the Runner. “Was this worth upsetting mother and likely shortening your operational lifespan for? Would you follow my lead or hers if you had to make a decision?”

“Yours.” Yrob said without a pause. “Life better. More fun. Bigger. Well spent already."

He wasn’t quite sure if Relinquished was a bad leader to follow, but he was sure To’Wrathh was a good leader to follow. If she said Relinquished was bad, he believed her. It made sense to him and his pack. And they had been ready to attack To’Aacar, a Feather of Relinquished, earlier in the month. The Lady next to him likely forgot this detail. Yrob supposed that would be grounds to upset mother already. The lessers were never supposed to bare fangs at their greaters.

“Mother going to come? For us?” He asked.

To’Wrathh nodded slowly. “She will. Eventually.”

“Then. When she comes, we run.”

To'Wrathh huffed and smiled softly. “I suppose I have no choice but to find a way to protect you all. Fortunately, I have been working on this. There is a means of hiding from mother’s sight.”

“Escape Relinquished?” Yrob asked, voice tilting. “How escape? She know if we live. We can hide, she can seek forever. One mistake ends all.”

“The human goddess Tsuya was there to help my ancestors, other machines before me who also upset mother. I believe Tsuya will be there to help us if we ask. Finding a way to speak to her may be more difficult.”

“Give order. I find.”

To’Wrathh smiled again. “If she made it easy to speak to her, she wouldn’t have survived as long as she had over the years. No, she speaks only to certain people who know. One of which may be living within Keith’s armor. An engram, generated and controlled by the armor AI.”

“Ah. Angry lady.” Yrob said. He’d been around long enough to meet the ghost haunting that human's armor. Her words didn’t make much sense to him, but he could tell they were angry and made to insult. Even if she had been speaking a language not in his database, the tone was easy enough to tell.

To’Wrathh smiled. “Indeed, she is very angry, isn’t she? I would confront her myself, but Keith has left on a retreat with the Deathless clan lord a few days ago. This is why I’ve called you up. Take Tamery with you, and search for him. I’ll send you the coordinates. Give him my message. He’ll know what to do next.”

She felt a little guilty for sending the innocent eye’d Yrob to deal with Keith’s caustic roommate, no doubt Cathida wouldn’t spare the Runner any mercy. Tamery may help smooth things out, she hoped.

“Understand. I go.” Yrob said, already lumbering over to the market, looking for a particular human to kidnap in the middle of the night. If To'Wrathh had considered it for a little longer, she might have realized this wasn't the best way to make a positive impression on the human population.

But the feather was too distracted with her next task, already walking with purpose. Directly to the city's imperial church.

They weren’t happy to see her. If she had considered it for a little longer, she might have also realized this would be the case.

The imperials all hushed once she approached their temple. A massive thing in comparison to the other buildings. It connected to a park, well kept with yellow flowers and other motifs of gold embedded within the walls. The entire place was covered in candles, incense, scrollwork filled with latin proverbs, and paintings of heroic crusaders.

Inside the building was no different, only she was met with silence.

“Lady To’Wrathh.” A man in a brown dress hobbled over to greet her, hastily woken up. Behind him, two crusaders kept a hand on the pommel of their swords, and their gazes were locked onto her.

The imperial church here had taken a beating during the invasion. General Zaang’s betrayal had left most of the crusaders hospitalized, or outright dead when they'd tried to hold the pillar heart against his elites. They were low on numbers, leaving the squires and servants to protect the church. These two crusaders may be the only ones standing. And they both knew they were outmatched against To’Wrathh.

Zealous they may be, idiots they were not.

“Greetings priest Cadwin. I require an audience with you, in private.” She said.

The priests eyes narrowed slightly, but nodded all the same. “If you’ll follow me, we have a few guest rooms behind the temple gardens, one of which I use as my office. A tad bit of a mess, I hadn’t expected an audience of any kind. I do hope you'll forgive this tired old man.” He chuckled darkly, heartrate above normal.

To’Wrathh gave polite apologies but remained adamant about speaking now. She needed answers. While she had time to plan ahead, that time was still finite and ticking away day by day.

The two crusaders followed behind the pair, eyes never leaving her back. Despite the city having long ago given up and complied with her rule, the imperial church remained stubborn, often doing the absolute most they could without entering overt treason. Their current cooperation with her was only because she had outright forced it with violence. Or the threat of it. Inside her mind, she quietly reminded herself that it didn't count as threatening people if she didn't pull her swords out and point at throats. It was only implied that she could do so.

Inside the small guesthouse, she found the priest’s office. A round globe on the desk, which her senses immediately detected to have many mechanical parts inside that would unfold the globe into several layered cross sections. She didn’t know what artwork was inside exactly, but it was likely to be well made given the scannable craftsmanship.

The priest walked to sit in his chair, waving a hand for her to take a seat as well. The two crusaders silently followed inside, standing at attention behind To’Wrathh. She didn’t feel any fear, her combat suite would activate faster than they could swing at her. Even if they did connect, they couldn’t deal enough damage to her shields to knock her out of the fight before their element of surprise was gone.

She didn’t know why they followed her in given that they both knew how useless the gesture was, but humans were not always rational actors as she’d discovered over her time. Most times it had been outright annoying to deal with, but occasionally they could be charming creatures as a result, To'Wrathh conceded. Keith was an excellent example of th-- why was she thinking about that?

To'Wrathh shook her head, slapping both her cheeks slightly, and focused on the task at hand with a cough to clear her throat. All of which was completely unnecessary, in hindsight. Nevertheless, she composed her features. She was a Feather, and Feathers needed to be dignified. A traitor to the lady she might be, she still had some pride in the nature of things. Her wings flared out and folded back, slightly higher to allow her to sit down in the wooden chair with little issue.

“Now then, Lady To’Wrathh, what business brought you here?” The priest asked, sitting down on his chair with a creak. He seemed to fall into the chair, in the way older humans did.

“Approximately seven hundred years ago, records of a human empire exist within the machine archives along with documentation on the war that happened between. I have recovered that information recently and have been sorting through it. I need additional information from your records.”

The room instantly grew silent. The priest’s eyes widening, breath held. The crusaders took it in stride without even flinching, but To’Wrathh could detect their increased heartbeats.

She wasn’t sure why her opening statement had such an effect. Was this humans being strange again? She'd need to add this datapoint to her ever expanding behavior model.

“I... see.” The priest said after a pause, folding his hands together.

"You seem surprised by this statement. Could you clarify why this is surprising?" To'Wrathh asked, curious to know this particular behavior difference. "You are part of a religion that worships this past empire and follow all its general doctrines already. I don't believe I have mentioned anything at odds with your worldview."

The priest took a breath, started to say something, then shook his head. He stayed silent for a moment, as if trying to pick out the right words to say. “Forgive me, it's not often someone comes by and simply speaks such revelations within the very first sentence."

"I see." To'Wrathh said, realizing her mistake. "Let me reword my discussion. Current weather is excellent, would you not agree Priest Cadwin? How is your work treating you? There has been a noted increase in turnout for sermons by thirty two percent, if my records are correct."

"Small talk isn't what I mean by that." The priest huffed, then paled. "Erm, forgive me my lady, I don't mean that with any offence of course."

"None taken. Proceed." To'Wrathh said, head tilted to the side. Humans were so strange.

The imperial priest coughed into a closed fist, then spoke. "You see, doctrine has long claimed that the empire existed of course, though we don't have any actual records or knowledge from that time period. Strictly speaking, there is no evidence the empire existed, all our relics and scrolls are dated post-collapse, and it was said the machines had razed everything to the ground so that not even ash remained to reclaim. We hadn’t considered the machines were also holding onto knowledge as well, although it seems obvious in retrospect. I suppose we humans have been blind ourselves to some... possibilities of this new reign.”

To’Wrathh blinked. “Are you interested in the documents and media uncovered from the imperial empire? The recent dive has returned around seven petabytes of information.”

A candled flickered in the room for a moment, while the three imperials remained silent.

“S-s-seven petabytes?!” The priest stammered, the spell broken, leaning across the desk. All thoughts about who he was talking to gone. “Of complete evidence that the empire actually existed? And from the machine point of view?!”

Behavior models within To'Wrathh predicted the current tone matched to excited greed, and possession. An odd combination. “That is what I said. Seventy three percent of the current data haul is video format, eighteen percent is audio-only format, and the remaining nine percent is text and image format. Most files were intact, a few had to be reconstituted and are only accurate to the ninetieth percentile as a result.”

The priest looked just about ready to have a heart attack. Breathing was far too heavy, and it seemed he was just about to reach out and yank To’Wrathh forward. “Actual live video footage of the empire in it’s full glory?!” There was a crazed look in his eye.

To’Wrathh was starting to feel annoyed at the redundant statements, wondering if it was an imperial custom or simply a quirk of this specific priest. “Again, that is what I said. The archive we gathered contains various media formats of a human imperial empire that stretched across most of the world. The machine archive does not store misleading media. There is no need to do so.”

She was starting to worry the human might start frothing at the mouth, or drooling on the table.

That would not be adorable or cute.

The two crusaders were clearly going through motions of their own, only trying their hardest to hide it. The priest on the other hand was finally reaching back to lucidity, leaning back onto his seat, covering his mouth with a pensive and dignified nod while trying hard to calm down.

“Yes, yes of course.” He said, straightening his tunic. “I’m sorry to annoy you with this, Lady To’Wrathh. You have to understand the context - we have very little that remains of the old empire, other than passed down relics and scrolls. The golden goddess passed down scriptures and history, but that was only long after the empire had been gone. All of which could have been fabricated. While we imperials do not doubt the authentisity of our records, many others do. The search for true evidence of the empire has been something that has plagued our religion since its inception. And our detractors often point to our lack of evidence as proof that our foundation is faulty. You are stating that not only do you have proof of our foundation, but a lot of it - and it’s from a credible uncompromised source that shows a completely alternate side of history almost no humans could possibly uncover. Lady To’Wrathh, were you not a Feather and a machine, I believe you would have been hailed as a saint and angel sent by the golden goddess herself.”

“Tsuya, you mean?”

“Tsyu---ya?” The priest asked, not quite understanding. Then his eyes widened. “You know the goddess’s name? She knows the goddess name. It has to be, right? But no one knows her name…"

To'Wrathh found that odd. She split a branch in her processing power, and made a quick search through all public holy texts tagged with the imperial church. There were no hits for Tsuya. The goddess is only mentioned in general terms, with no name attached. These imperials were far less organized than she had thought. This did not bode well for her needs. Nodes to communicate with Tsuya had long ago been destroyed after the fratricide. When there were neither proto-feathers nor an emperor to protect humanity. The Deathless had appeared soon after, however they could only contest against the Feathers. Not stop them completely.

"Wait - the archives you’ve recovered, does that mean they include her?!” The priest asked.

She nodded. “Yes, she appears approximately one thousand, two hundred and eight times within the currently gathered video and audio footage, given an average definition of appearance. She was very active in leading the defense against Relinquished, the current machine ruler." To'Wrathh paused, considering how best to explain Relinquished to these humans. "The closest connection to your religion, she would be known as the Violet Goddess.”

This time it was the crusaders that couldn’t keep their composure, both breaking character, heads turning. The priest just seemed to slump in his chair, mind racing. "She's real. Everything's true. Goddess. Golden. Real. The puritans... Esekar cultists had it wrong the whole time, hah. Completely wrong. She's real. Veridas sect was also wrong about their hivemind mythology. Mitespeakers... well, they did say it was a god behind the machines. Never said who. Suppose that counts. The two gods offshoot can finally be discarded, only one violet goddess not two. They had it wrong." He continued to mumble incoherent ramblings. "Tsuya... Tsuya..." His eyes sharpened all of a sudden, head springing back up. "Wait, Tusya. I know that name! The way of the white, the surface dweller religion!" His old fingers snapped a few times, as if trying hard to recall information. "Their religion said... oh what was it about again? Something about three gods, yes. One of them was Tsuya. No, but their gods are said to be fighting something from outside. Mere coincidence the name is the same?"

"Tsuya has worked with the surface dwellers and is active in their continued survival." To'Wrathh said. "They are humans after all." Tsyua was the goddess attempting to help all of humanity. She did not only fight for imperials, the empire had simply been the most convenient target to funnel resources into, with the largest chance of success. Had it been some different kingdom or republic that grew powerful enough to have a chance, she would have joined forces so long as it served her ultimate goal.

"There's more than one god? Tsuya and our golden goddess?" The priest asked, stupefied and taking the wrong lesson from all this.

Now it was getting annoying. Humans. "No. As I have said only a moment ago, Tsuya, the one your imperial religion mentioned, has been active with the empire. She has also been active with the surface dwellers. These are not mutually exclusive. It is likely their religion diverged over time, or Tsuya did not need them to be a part of the empire."

To'Wrathh didn't have time to wait for the humans to digest the information. She needed answers and was starting to believe the imperials were not as organized as their past forefathers had been. She turned to one of the crusaders. "Please pass me a video slate. Perhaps once the information is verified directly we can continue with the discussion."

They stared at her for a second. Then stared at each other for another second.

One of them broke into a run, heading straight for the storage room. At full sprint.

When they reached the topic of the emperor, all three had to take a full ten minute break to talk among each other. Their talks had little to do with planning anything and mostly wild excitement, even while not being in the room she knew since the walls were not built to defend against a Feather's audio-sensor suite. Why they needed to take a break just for this To'Wrathh couldn't understand.

Humans were awfully strange creatures sometimes.

They hadn’t been thrilled to find out that Tsuya was an AI. Even if she had been human once. They’d thought of her more as a divinity in the mythical sense, a god with powers beyond human comprehension. On the same level as the Deathless.

Discovering that their god was not all-powerful and outright the underdog against Relinquished had been a very bitter pill for them to swallow. It couldn't be helped. Relinquished had control of the most servers and processing power within the world. Her advantage only grew as she leveraged the power to obtain more power. No program or person could contest against her. Even the entire digital sea put together would not be able to contest her.

The mites might, considering they had a seperate ecosystem nearly cut off from the chaotic digital sea machines used.

The rest of the information had been far better received, especially discovering that the emperor was more than a figurehead, but instead far closer to an actual deity in the mythical sense.

The priest was already making calls and planning to send out copies of the data to the nearby imperial chapters. To’Wrathh warned them to prepare precautions against capture, but otherwise saw little reason to keep such information hidden from the human imperials.

Besides, she wanted their cooperation. They seemed ready to give her anything she could ask for in exchange.

“As for the main objective I’ve come to discuss with you, it has to do with Tsuya. During the war against the empire, the first Feathers were created in an attempt to counter the Emperor’s powers. It worked, and they eventually defeated him. However, shortly after the full machine victory those feathers grew disgusted at the slaughter they were tasked to perform and rebelled, being branded as proto-feathers from then on.”

The priest nodded. Eyes fully focused. “They rebelled, as you are reported to have done?”

To’Wrathh nodded. “Yes. All of them."

The tactician had been the only exception, but he hadn't been listed as a proto-feather in the archives. It seemed Relinquished considered that title to be a dark mark on any record and had instead categorized A57 as the first and only Feather of the official first generation, with the aloof second generation based off his template. All Feathers knew of him and of his destruction during a pivotal battle against the humans. It appears that was a fabrication.

"The protofeather composition resembles my own, and I followed in their footsteps as a result." To'Wrathh strongly suspected Mother had hoped she would become another tactician, like the original before her. Perhaps she thought that with To'Aacar as a mentor and guide she would follow the 'right' path, and that her initial hatred of humans and desire to hunt down Keith would have made her more resistant.

Mother had miscalculated quite seriously.

"The first thing the protofeathers did in their rebellion was to communicate with Tsuya and reach a method of hiding themselves from Relinquished.”

“... Then you came to us to speak to the golden goddess, as your predecessors have before you?” The priest asked.

She nodded. “It is as you say. I need to speak to your goddess and request the same treatment she offered the protofeathers - only to be given to my people and myself. I would like to request the audience to be soon, within the day if possible. Please have your clergy arrange this.”

“I wish I could help you, and I sincerely mean it when I say this Lady To’Wrathh, much to my own surprise. I would love nothing more than to follow the footsteps of my goddess and assist you in your own rebellion. But unfortunately... faith is faith because we can only belive in the goddess. The church does not have any means to communicating with her. We can only follow the scriptures she left behind. Many in the world don’t believe she exists at all.”

This was not going as she had hoped. At all. Her feathers twitched at her side. “Is there some other means you know of?”

“If there were, we would have discovered it. Or perhaps the ones higher up the chain have already, only they could be keeping it secret to protect the goddess. I am but a priest in this church and there are many higher ranks than my own."

"Are there rumors or myths you know of, locations of importance in stories where the goddess might have been spoken to?" To'Wrathh asked, getting desperate and looking for any scrap of information she could.

"Rumors? I suppose there's a popular one of a hidden chapter among the crusaders. An elite chapter filled with only the greatest of their soldiers, who are said to speak directly to the goddess and carry out her will. It's very popular with children and teenagers, as all heroic stories tend to be. I'm sorry to say, but it really is only a rumor. The church has too many places that need crusaders to afford sending their best into a secret chapter."

One of the crusaders guarding the doorway coughed, then looked at his companion. They shared a meaninful conversation without words, through faceless helmets. And seemed to reach the same conclusion.

"They exist." The one on the right said. "It's a known rumor only because crusaders of higher rank know about them, and such things leak out with that many crusaders. Among the warriors of the imperial church, it is less a rumor and more an open secret."

The priest stared at the two. "You both knew this and did not tell me?" He seemed almost hurt. "I've known you both since you were kids!"

The one on the left spoke. "Forgive me, your emminence. However, crusaders and the church are two seperate entities, we both serve the goddess in our own ways. You and the clergy for the people. And we for her blade."

The room went quiet for a moment, and To'Wrathh realized this sort of revelation happened often in the televised novelas the humans here loved to watch. Though they'd always told her such things were larger than life and nothing of the sort actually happened in the more mundane life. And yet here she was.

"Are you part of this... order?" The priest asked.

"They are known as the Indagator Mortis, and if I were, I would not be stationed here." The crusader said. "I do not say this to offend, only to make a point that the Indagator Mortis moves in far larger circles than a small church."

To'Wrathh raised a hand to inturrupt the discussion. "While this is an interesting development among the imperial church, is there a way to contact this chapter?"

The crusader nodded. "I can't contact them directly, but I can get a word out to the upper echelon of crusaders. They'll surely help connect you."

She was about to ask more details when a ping alerted her. It hadn’t come from Yrob, nor her army.

It came from outside. On the machine network.

The message itself was simple, a polite notice of appearance.

What worried To’Wrathh wasn’t the contents, but the sender. The identification listed a single name.

To’Sefit.

To'Wrathh stood, "We will need to continue this discussion at another time. There is an issue that has come to my attention and I need to leave immediately."

The message had stated the Feather would arrive within the hour, there were no other contents to the ping. To'Wrathh didn't know who this Feather was, nor why she was on her way to the city. However, being forwarned of it could mean there was a potential way to remain undercover.

Or the Feather was simply sending it to her as a challenge.

She needed to prepare for both possibilities before the intruder could arrive. To'Wrathh took to the sky the moment she was outside, calculating everything she could get her hands on now. She'd learned her lessons already, the Winterscar motto raged in her mind: Never suffer a fair fight.

Pings were sent from her, rousing her army. A separate message on the human local network, sent to General Zaang to marshal his own troops. She'd have sent a message to Yrob, except the Runner was too far outside the city to safely reach. It could be intercepted.

There was still one more thing she could do to push down on the scale: Weapons.

She shifted her course and zipped through the air, directly to the only location that would have what she needed. Made by the only weaponsmith who considered 'fair-play' a dirty word:

Keith's Workshop.

Next chapter - New moves

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