12 Miles Below

“Around seven hundred years ago, the Deathless and Feathers first appeared.” Wrath said, outlining what she’d found in her deeper searches through the machine archive. “At that period, humanity was succeeding in the war effort. A massive empire had been formed and was succeeding at breaking deeper into the stratas, stopped only by the more powerful machines left behind under those layers.”

“I really wish you weren’t right about this.” I grumbled. “Cathida is going to be insufferably smug for at least a month.” The old crusader only dug her heels further into the ice whenever pushed about the subject of being civil with Wrath.

Half my attention was on Wrath’s words, the other half was on the delightful second helping of fish and mushroom stuffed crab ‘ragouetté’ - or however it’s pronounced. Some kind of dish served in a crab shell the size of my palm, with a blend of brown meaty mushrooms and savory crab bits. Supposedly, one would scoop up the contents and pair with the breaded fish bite by bite.

Also I had yet to choke on fishbones, so they were really good at picking those out.

Not that I wasn’t paying full attention as Wrath explained the most important parts of human history only a few ever had the source of truth to, but this was fish after all. “Hard to imagine Relinquished let things get that far out of hand.” I said, cheeks puffed up and already shoving more into my gullet. “Doesn’t she eradicate cities growing too big? Pilgrims always say cities have to remain small-ish otherwise the machines come down hard. Here, she let an entire empire walk over her.”

“Analyzed records on past machine aggression prove that point, yes.” Wrath said, taking an absentminded bite out of her empty crab shell, as if it were bread. “How the empire gained a foothold or grew as large as it did was not something I was able to recover, yet. I have suspicions. The keypoint being that an emperor led the human armies.”

“Led the charge directly in the fight? Or led from a command tent far away from the battle? Also, you know the plates are edible too, right?” I said, after she’d finished her crab shell and was left with an empty shining metal plate.

Her eyes looked down at the plate for a half second, before glaring back at me, narrowing with suspicion. “I will not fall for your tricks.” She huffed. “I already tried once and Tamery made it clear that this was not done.”

"Sure, but what if she's wrong and you can eat some plates?" I not so innocently asked.

A moment later, there was a knock at the door. The waitress passed through, carrying a tray of similar plates all loaded with more steaming food, all the while taking the empty plates back, cutting me off from my plans. This would be her third time showing up, and she seemed more and more confused with each trip.

She’d stressed to us that some of the meals we’d picked were made for a group of four people. That hadn’t stopped Wrath and sounded more like a challenge to me.

Portion size was something Undersiders didn’t do well in my opinion. On the surface, we’d have plenty of food grown cheaply and in mass quantities, so the calorie intake was high. It needed to be, the cold up there always snuck through the walls even with the heating making a constant fight of it.

Not to mention walking in the snow or climbing cliffsides to reach sites of interest was not something that could be done by weaklings, especially lugging around a full evo-suit. So all clans mandate a certain level of fitness which can’t be reached on a small diet. That sort of requirement trickled down to all the different castes, each requiring their own specific set of fitness goals, with Retainers being the most strict. We did go out into said snow and cliffsides while the rest of the castes only needed to be prepared for emergency situations.

All the castes except for the Logi, who were fueled by pure caffeine and spite as far as I knew. But they were the exception to a lot of things already, so no surprise there.

Weight moves weight was the old adage whenever someone was working to reach the requirements. More hours in the gym, put a full evo-suit when going practice climbing in the hangar - and most importantly, when in doubt, eat more lime-grilled crickets.

Down here, the Undersiders clearly didn’t have that kind of culture, or any insect based diets either. All their plates were tiny things, more art than anything actually filling. Lot of things were far more soft and tender too, not much crunch anywhere. Other than crab shells and plates. No wonder they were so short compared to us. Felt like a giant walking through the city, which isn't something I'm used to up on top.

The waitress put down the new dishes before us, a set of sauces of different colors along with a foot long grilled fish to be shared together. The white-red meat had already been stripped, cut into bite sized pieces, leaving just the head as decoration. At least, decoration to me. Wrath was most certainly going to be eating that at some point.

“Is this still raw?” I asked, taking a closer look at the dish.

The waitress nodded. “Certain fish species can be eaten raw when prepared correctly, and of good enough grade. This is some of the finest.”

Wrath was also nodding along. "I had earlier arguments with Tenisent about the viability of eating raw fish. The next time you meet him, please let him know he was wrong and I was right."

I thought about eating raw fish, shrugged, and went with it. So far the food had been pretty good. Maybe a week of working away at my projects had helped settle my nerves enough to start enjoying small things like this again. A few more bubbly drinks of fruits I hadn’t heard before were set down and the waitress left us alone with the next course.

“As I understood it, the emperor was on the front line as vanguard, in every battle.” Wrath said, already starting on her side.

“That doesn’t sound much like what an emperor would do,” I said, trying out the first few sauces with the raw fish strips. “Even commanders don’t go into the front lines, much less a political busy body like an emperor would.”

“Correct.” Wrath said. “The emperor must have had combat abilities that allowed them to survive the front lines. And they must have been powerful abilities to justify continuously placing themselves in each battle. That leads me to a possible conclusion that this emperor was the lynchpin and reason humanity was winning at the time. At a lower strata, there is a known teleportation network which would allow travel anywhere needed. Once they breached into this strata, the humans would have become a plague to deal with.”

I thought about it from Relinquished’s point of view. “A strong emperor wiping out machine armies somehow. Maybe with the occult? Possibly a Deathless.” The pale lady, able to lead a massive machine army and watching them get destroyed by a single human leading the charge. “I sort of see where the protofeathers were imagined from. Relinquished tried to copy whatever the emperor was about, didn’t she? Are there such a thing as proto-deathless? Do we know more about this emperor?”

She shook her head. “My connection to the archive was interrupted at that point, when I had sent out for more detail. I know nearly nothing about mankind’s emperor. What I know about Deathless are generic details about their behavior patterns and expected combat techniques. No history, only individual files.”

“Mankind’s emperor…” I thought, slowly destroying the dish between us. I was thinking back on the mite prophecy that Wrath had once told me. Made sense this sort of figure was outright listed as part of the prophecy if they were powerful enough to squash armies.

“‘To draw out the final enemy’.” Wrath said, finishing the second part of that snippet. “It’s clear to me the mites believe this old empire will be returning in some fashion and that the previous emperor has possibly been dormant this entire time. Or captured and needs to be freed.”

“To draw out the final enemy sounds a lot like a challenge statement.” I said, adding to what we knew. “You think the emperor reappearing will cause Relinquished to show up on a battlefield herself?”

“I suspect that is the case. Relinquished didn’t stir when I unlocked files for the protofeathers, but data fragments of the human emperor did. This must be something that she classified as more dangerous.”

“I should pay a visit to the local imperial church. See if they can tell me more about their songs and stories. Maybe we might find some details there.” I said. “Plus, it might give a head start on your quest for the mites.”

Wrath looked thoughtful for a moment. “How… how far are you willing to involve yourself in this?”

I could tell what she was really asking here. Right now, we were figuring out ways to get her people to safety. Once that was settled, Wrath would likely go back to paying back the debt she owed the mites. Which would involve her looking around for the emperor and probably getting in touch with the other aspects of that prophesy.

Strictly speaking, I could handle what I needed to here in the city, and head back home to twiddle my thumbs. Die happy of old age at some point. If I was feeling generous, I could even sell her some of my newly crafted items over the years. At a steep price and some haggling of course, I still had my integrity.

Father’s words floated through my head. I don’t know where this road leads, yet I believe it is worth following.

“You want me to come with you, after we’re done with all this? For the prophecy you’re dealing with, I mean.” I asked, cutting right into the heart of it.

Wrath looked outright guilty. “I am aware this is not your fight, and asking for help in this task would be… extreme of a question, when you could simply return to the surface and live out the rest of your life in relative peace. I know you are already stretching your hospitality by staying and assisting with this.”

“What was your plans otherwise for the mites, if your people were safe?” I asked, feeling curious about Wrath's future.

“I would remain hidden on the surface for a few years to grow my combat skills and solidify my skillet of fractals, before I attempted to follow through with the mite prophesy myself. Or at least hidden near the top layer, if not outside.”

I munched on my fish, thinking it through. “What exactly could I even bring to the table here? I’m just a regular human under the armor in the end.”

She shook her head. “Regardless of what happens, I will need a human specialist with me. Deathless, Feathers and machines all have a seven fractal limit, while regular humans do not seem to have any limits. Out of all the humans I know, you are the one who has the most experience and skill in the occult.”

“You want me as an occult specialist?”

She nodded.

Getting yanked into this sort of mission was basically asking to die along the way. This was the sort of calling for Deathless or heroes of myth. And I wasn’t in either of those two categories. Strictly human here, and exactly as squishy. Sure I had the occult, a few nasty tricks up my armored mitts along with some bad ideas I could throw out. But sending a human on that mission was basically asking them to melt the wastes.

I thought back to the clan, on any unfinished business and found myself oddly content with how everything had turned out. Also, death in this world wasn’t quite so permanent as it had been before. I was in a position mostly Deathless got to be in. Even if I got iced, so long as I prepared ahead of time, I might pull one over the reaper. It wasn’t exactly a free airlift out of the scrapshit, Father was still stuck as a bodiless specter. But he was alive, so there was still a chance to get him back into the real world somehow.

I grabbed another strip of fish, dipped it, and shoved it in my mouth all while saying words that would change the direction of my life forever after. “Sure, guess I could tag along.”

Wrath smiled fondly, looking relieved. I brushed off her thanks and went back on topic, mostly because I was feeling a little embarrassed for having committed myself to this insane quest, but it wasn’t just to do with helping Wrath. There was a real chance to do good in the world, to really help fix it. The mite prophecy, if it was true, was something more on the level of ending Relinquished. This was what Knight Retainers were all about, we’d taken our vows to be the bulwark that stood against the storm.

“There’s a few other smaller religions in the city from what Kidra’s told me about. I’m sure a historical event like an empire probably had some impact on the other religions, not just Imperials. There has to be their version of it in the smoke.”

Wrath raised an eyebrow. “You are attempting to avoid speaking to the crusader engram within your armor, aren’t you?”

“Not at all,” I lied through my teeth. “What could possibly make you think that?”

“Eventually, you will need to speak to them.” She said, clearly unconvinced. “This engram might contain more information than the local chapter here will.”

“Eventually. That said, if they hadn’t found the emperor by now, clearly they’re missing something already.”

She mulled that over, fork held still, giving me a free chance to snag some more fish before she ate the rest.

“There is one possible manner of recovering more information at this point.” She said. “If it works, it would contain information that the imperial religion may not be able to obtain on their own. However, this method would almost certainly be dangerous.”

Another source of information that the imperials would not be able to tap into? That would exclude any Undersider or surface cities. Gods above, even the slavers and raider compounds wouldn’t be safe from being looted by angry enough Imperials if they were hiding information on the emperor.

That left only three places the imperials couldn’t get their golden gauntlets around: Deep underground sealed off secrets, the mite’s archives and the machine one. I don’t think we were going to go searching around randomly hoping to stumble on a historical artifact out in the world, and poking the machines with a stick was equally not a great idea. “The mites. You want to go see if they know anything. And if you’re asking me, you want me to go the way of a mitespeaker?”

I was starting to see why she needed an occult specialist. If anyone put some thought into it, it was clear the mites were the greatest occultists in the world.

Wrath shook her head instead, looking horrified. “No. Please don't follow the steps of mitespeakers. I’ve spoken with the mite collective once, and it nearly destroyed my systems. Humans speaking to them are said to have their minds shattered, and I believe this.” She stopped, and then had the audacity to look sheepish at her next words. “That said, there is still something we can learn from them.”

“Sounds like you’re about to sell me something shady.”

She frowned, “No monetary transactions needed. It’s more to do with my signature being too well known and recognizable. Programs I send that do not trace back to my signature are pre-constructed and have limited ability to fend for themselves in the digital sea. Things on the other side are constantly evolving and changing dynamically, a program that’s static or not dynamic enough will be consumed by others.”

“You want my help to generate programs? I’m handy with software but no Logi. And I get the feeling you already know more about the subject than I ever could, you’re a machine.” I said. “Just because I can hook a few pieces of metal with some duct tape and make a weapon out of it, doesn’t mean I’m smart at other things. You’re bringing me on as the occult specialist here, not the charismatic speech giver or heavy fighter. At best, I'd put in an application to be the rogue with a heart of gold. And a matching wallet.”

I’ve learned from Anarii a long time ago, there’s different kinds of smart. Someone who’s incredibly gifted with math is not going to be an equally amazing airspeed pilot or a master speechmaker. Field of expertise existed for a reason, nobody was bright in all things. The clans worked as stratified castes for a reason.

“We will not need a machine, nor a program. Mitespeakers must have some method of connecting their minds to the digital ocean in order to speak to the mites. This means humans diving into the digital realm isn’t an impossibility. Tenisent displayed a similar ability before, being able to connect to and manipulate machinery with the Occult. I suspect we can co-opt this method and reuse it.”

The bunker. The turrets. It had been an isolated system, but still a system. And Father had infiltrated and commandeered it somehow. Well, it's been on my to-do list for some time, right under not-dying. “You really think I could connect with the machine archive using the soul fractal?”

A knock on the door put a pause to our discussion as the waitress marched back in and took the empty plates away. By this point I was feeling pretty stuffed, so I politely declined ordering something more, settling for some water. Wrath, of course, had no such problems and readily pointed out her next few meals. The waitress noted it all down and equally answered anything Wrath had. General taste, favorite recommendations, and no, she didn't know any meal that had edible plates on the menu but she'll check with the kitchen.

The doors closed and Wrath continued while I washed down the last bits of food. “The theory is sound. If you can access the digital ocean directly, you may have a chance of recovering more information than I could. Simply avoid the mite or machine controlled sections and dive down into the older machine segments."

"Father still needed a direct physical connection, does something like that exist for the machine archives?"

She shook her head. "The archives themselves? Yes, however they are located at the lowest strata. Fortunately, you don't need those. So long as you can connect to the wider digital sea, you could traverse through there into the archives with some directions. Terminals built by Relinquished do exist at all stratas and serve as command and control nodes, in multiple locations. All machines know of them and use them to communicate with one another. I overloaded a few when I fought against To'Aacar."

"Ah, there's the shady part of the deal." I raised an eyebrow, "Should I bring a box of chocolates with me when we stroll up to machine central? Might up my chances of survival."

"Giving me the chocolates would increase your chances of survival more." Wrath said, crossing her arms and looking miffed.

"And why's that?" I asked.

"I know locations of terminals that are not controlled or monitored by machines. Much safer."

"What terminals would have access to the digital part of the world that machines don't contr- oh. Right. Mites. Of course it'd be them." The answer was so obvious in hindsight I couldn't help but slap my head. Father and I have even gone searching for one directly while we were trying to escape the first layer.

Wrath gave a slight nod. "The mites do not always make functioning terminals, however they do exist.”

“All right, so we can sneak me into the digital sea, but how do we keep me alive in there? What sort of dangers would a human soul be up against?"

I could tell from the shifty look she had that the answer wasn't going to be nice. “Something like this hasn’t been done before, so I can not be certain. However, we do have ways to mitigate this. You could bring Tenisent with you to help ward off danger. I know he learns and adapts to any means of combat rapidly, doing so as a soul inside a digital prison was not out of his reach. Regardless, we will start with practice first. With smaller systems inside the city, to test out the theory. After, I can attempt to simulate attacks to see how you would fare against those. We can also run tests to see how much help or direction I can offer. What do you think?”

“Can I still sign up as the rogue instead of the warlock or is it too late?” I asked.

She leaned forward, hands under her chin with a awful smile spreading and I knew I'd been caught. "Well, I do need an archive stolen, that seems like perfect rogue work according to definition. When is the earliest you can start?"

Walked right into that one.

So. My first act as the heroic mook in this story was to steal from the machine grand archive.

Next chapter - Training inside the gates of hell

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