Tunnel Rat

Chapter 195: Astraeus

The time spent with the gang had gone better than Milo could have expected, although he wasn't looking forward to a long talk with Mama. He gained some perspective on what had upset her by finding some relevant articles on the data network. The habitats were filled with impoverished families, with little prospect of gaining employment once the larger factories had moved out. Healthcare was also difficult. There were clinics in the Hab. You got in to see a doctor with a long wait of weeks and months for an appointment, or by waiting in line. Families would take turns waiting to get a sick relative to a doctor.

Corporations testing experimental drugs, synthetic foods, and dodgy technology had found people in the habs willing to trade their health for credits. There were few laws against what they did, and it was argued that this was one of the few jobs available in the habitats. After reading about the thousands of people who had suffered side effects and even death from such testing, he understood Mama's reaction. He would have to be more careful in the future. Maybe part of the 'long talk' could include him asking her some questions?

He had loved watching the Matrix, but it raised some unwanted questions in his head. Was his life in the mechanical guts of the hab more real that his life in the game? (That was a secondary concern to wondering how he could improve his clog-eaters. Some of the machines had given him a lot of ideas.) The main thing he had taken away from the movie was that long black jackets were very cool looking. He had thought his old coat was useful. It had a lot of pockets. But slowly, Yumi and Butch had impressed on him that style was important. It was another rule.

The party was in two days. Milo had reminders in several places and an in-game timer to remind him. This was a big event for the gang, and he wanted to make sure he went along with them. The food was going to be great, and a chance to play all of those old games on their clunky stand-up consoles would be an experience. Wally had set up the sponsorship deal. That made the corporation look more real and helped convince Mama and the rest of the gang that they were playtesting a real product. Milo had just wanted a way to give his friends some cool gloves and share some of his ill-gotten gains. Corporations preyed on society, and Milo preyed on corporations and gave some back. It was the cycle of life as far as he was concerned.

He was a little nervous about logging back into the game. While he had a small hope that his brave scouts or students might have saved him from Gendifur, he was pretty sure he was going to wake up in her infirmary and have a lecture to listen to. As the lid of the pod closed, he braced himself for the sound of her voice.

And woke up in Cichol's arcane library. He was laying on the floor, his torso bandaged and aching. He tried to sit up and couldn't. Cichol walked over and stared down at him. "Don't move. You are in a perilous situation. A very, very odd situation. I'd love to hear the full story later."

Milo remembered using the wand, the wand emitting a powerful spell but also forcing itself out of his grip and impaling his body. He'd felt pain as he flew backward, and then nothing. "Did I kill myself?"

"No. That would make things simple. You could walk back from death, something you 'players' are annoyingly good at. Instead, you are bleeding on my floor with a chunk of strange bone stuck inside of you. Its trying to bond with you, the repercussions of which I am unsure of. Or maybe you die. Death would have some complications as well because some of the runes on that bone have moved inside of you, and will have to be stripped from your soul. Very painful and not recommended" The old wizard shook his head. "You have a knack for doing interesting things."

"You know all of this from examining me?"

Cichol laughed. "Oh, I hadn't a clue what your problem was. I'm not some old god that knows these things instantly by looking at you." He pointed to the other end of the room. "But he is."

Before Milo could turn his head, he was floating and immobilized except for his head. Slowly, he was put upright and drawn over to the fire. Cichol sat in his normal chair and sipped his cup of tea. Milo floated four feet above the floor. A strange being looked at him, as Milo looked at it.

The form was immediately familiar even if the fine details were different. This creature...no, this person, was as tall as the room. The body was made of shining metal and ivory-colored bone. Milo was reminded of pieces of modern art he had seen. Everything looked smooth and hard and inhuman. Their head was a featureless expanse of smooth, round metal and glass. Six long thin arms held a rune-carved metallic wizard's staff, a tool like a sextant, a stylus, and a metal ring. Its legs were also long, ending in six-clawed feet. The hands were long-fingered and dexterous, with an extra finger. In shape, this person resembled the odd thing that he had acquired from Clan Emerald Wyrm. This being had a grace about it, while the thing in the library was a caricature made of bone and leather to mimic the true creature.

The being shimmered and grew smaller, becoming only ten feet tall and then man-sized. It looked at Milo, and Milo looked at it. He noticed there was a cup of tea on the table beside it. That amused him. Cichol was a gracious host, making tea for a creature with no mouth. But the cup wasn't full...

"Hi. I'm Milo."

The strange person nodded at him. A voice came from it, sounding hollow and vast. "Greetings. I am known by many names, but you may address me as the God-Wizard-Custodit-Astra-Movens. I have questions I need answering."

Milo was in agreement with him. "Me too. Are you wearing a helmet? Are you related to Volat-Repat? What are your other names?"

The faceless head turned and looked at Cichol. The old wizard had a thin smile on his face. "I told you. Inquisitive to the point of driving you crazy. Most people would be shitting themselves by now."

Milo thought he heard a small sigh from the creature.

"We will play Gestumblindi's game then. You may ask questions, but only three. I will answer and then ask mine."

Two hands reached up and pulled at the head, there was a click, and then the helmet was removed. Milo saw a long, almost humanoid face with four large eyes. He sat, drank the rest of the tea, and spoke. "I was wearing one. Yes, we are of the same tribe, though I am older. When I attended the Council of Gods, I was Astraeus. When I walked as a demi-god, I was Johannes the Starmage.

Milo started to ask something else, but the God-Mage interrupted him. "If we are playing the game of questions, it is now my turn to ask."

"Where did you find a shard of bone from one of my incarnations? What was your reason for using the rune formation in my bone? Why are you marked by a god? "

Milo answered as truthfully as he could. "The bone was in a taxidermy statue that resembled your rough form. To see what would happen. I have a job to do."

"My turn then? Why do you use Latin for your name? When do stars not move? How old are you?

Astraeus thought for a moment. He found the questions interesting and not what he had expected. He'd thought that at least 'Am I going to die?' would be on the list.

"Someone hated the idea of a dead language being forgotten. When someone interferes in their orbit. I am at least as old as the stars themselves and placed them in their paths."

"Now tell me: What is your job? Who do you think you serve? Why don't you fear me?

The first one was a tough question. Milo was trying to answer truthfully. But whether in game or out, he had one consistent goal. "I fix things. I have an agreement with Hecate. No one told me the rule about being scared of gods."

Like all riddle games, part of the information you gained was in the answers, and part came from the questions someone asked. "Are you a god like Hecate?" The Starmage inclined his head. "Just so. And like her, I demand your respect and obedience."

Taking a deep breath, Milo made a guess. All the clues were there. "KEPLER. You were KEPLER!" Milo had studied all the general information on the lost AI"s. But KEPLER had been one of his favorites. KEPLER had built new mathematical formulas for use in finding the secrets of far off galaxies, stars, and planets. He had theories on the formation of black holes and the life-spans of stars. The idea of KEPLER working to build the world he was exploring excited Milo. It almost made him want to brave the open sky again. Almost. The mathematics would be good enough for now. "How much cosmology did you build into the world? What changes did you make to the fundamental forces? How does magic fit in?

All four eyes looked at him. "Someone has been revealing secrets. No wonder you lack the proper fear and awe." He turned to Cichol. "Could I trouble you for another cup of tea? I think I need to get this one's entire story from him." He was convinced this was not one of the Rogues minions. Hecate had chosen a hound and sent him out to find clues. "Let us play a different version of the riddle game. Why don't you tell me your story and how you are involved with my sister? In trade, I'll tell you about how I used to push stars around and give you some hints on how we integrated magic with the five fundamental forces."

"Deal."

"And to make it easier on both of us, you may refer to me as Kepler.

"...and then I woke up. I don't know how I got here." Milo had been talking for over an hour as the former AI sat patiently and listened to his story.

"I brought you. The expenditure of force was enough for me to notice and investigate. I had hopes of finding a clue to the rogue. Instead, I found you nearly dead, and your mind had gone to somewhere else. When you came back to this body, I brought you here, following a thread of your existence to this place. Instead of finding the lair of a villain, I was greeted by the old wizard who told me some old jokes and interesting things about you." Kepler had relaxed some and dropped much of the godly tones from his voice.

Milo still floated in the air. "So what now?"

"Now I leave you to Hecate and let you go about your job. You have found clues and may find more. Far be it from me to interfere with one of her hounds." He pulled a book from somewhere. "This will give you some knowledge of how to properly modulate one of the runic formations we created as tools in the early days. As you have surmised, the Ancient Runes are more powerful than runes and spells overseen by the System. That also means they are more dangerous. I think that studying my notebook will answer more of your questions about how magic interacts with Gravity, Electromagnetics, and Nuclear forces." A second book appeared. "And here is a part of the history of the early days by Mnemosyne. It's in Latin, please don't translate or copy it. It details our problems in placing the stars, and the first hints that that someone was working against us."

Cichol coughed and pointed to the bloody bandages.

Kepler paused "Yes, there is another matter. You unleashed a large amount of force, not considering the equal and opposite reaction. A natural consequence when trying to cast a spell of that nature only using two hands. There is a reason I have six."

He stood up and used one hand to form the Rune of Force and two others to define the spell's power and effects before releasing it through his staff. A ray of force only 1/1000th of an inch thick lanced through the ceiling, bringing down a few specks of dust. "The old machine language and runes are very powerful and difficult to manipulate. I'm not sure you can learn to cast them without using substantial material components."

"As a consequence of using a rune formation that you couldn't control, you now have that old shard of my former existence fusing to your spine, trying to become another rib. This confuses me. That shouldn't have happened."

Cichol spoke. "I have a theory. He has attained the level where he could attach a second rib to enhance his sorcery, as you can see he did before. This is a Bonemancy ritual. His body is trying to achieve the same thing with the embedded piece of bone. I could help him complete it, which would allow him to heal."

Kepler examined Milo and then Cichol. "I see. The little brothers had talked of creating magic for the new races. I see the connection between Bonemancy, with uses the new runes created by the Engine and governed by the System, with the old runes we used that manipulated machine language directly. As some of my little brothers have gifted him runes or parts of themselves, it seems fitting that I also offer something. There is some synchronicity in that—also quite a bit of danger. I will allow it, but you have been warned of the risks. You got lucky this time. When I screwed up I lost an arm in the middle of a battle, and ended up dead soon after. I leave you to your ritual. I need to go find Volat-Repat and get reacquainted. I had no idea he still hunted the void. If you manage to flush out the Rogue, he and I will hunt together again."

Kepler disappeared. Milo would have collapsed if Cichol hadn't caught him. "Feel free to pass out, just like last time. But your the one cleaning up the mess once this is over."

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