Neophyte World Builder

CROWN

I sat back and rubbed my face a few times. “Good grief Reese is embarrassing. I don’t remember Tastka being this awkward!” My complaint was rhetorical, but naturally the two imps in my sanctuary couldn’t let it go without comment.

“Tastka was a mystic in a group of stone age tribals who didn’t know how to explain anything,” Grem pointed out. “Reese is just a kid in a developed world with its own civilization, hanging out with a lady that’s hundreds of years old and knows more than he does. Of course he’s going to look dumb. Don’t worry about it boss… it’ll pass.”

Artemis giggled, making me almost wish for the old Orpheus who had no emotions and sense of humor. Almost. Grumpy as I was, I still felt a certain amount of protective affection toward that scamp of a Terminal. I wondered what the original Orpheus would think about how Artemis had gone about fulfilling her role.

| AKASHA: Father, things are getting very chaotic down here. I know that’s the point, but I think Nethys might figure out how to use her special class soon. Should I stop her?

I groaned. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another…” Rubbing my temples I leaned back and considered what Akasha had just said. It had been her idea to give Nethys that class, why was it now my problem?

The answer, of course, was that I’d thought it was a “cool idea” and hadn’t considered the situation with the expansion quakes. They’d been delayed for so long I’d just gotten the assumption that one more lifetime for the vaskan would wind down before they started. Now everyone was panicking as they felt like their civilizations would fall.

Maybe they would, but this was a thing that had to happen. There was no reason they shouldn’t be able to weather this with a minimum of trouble. It shouldn’t be my problem to shield them from every little danger that the world itself produced.

That thought made me frown. I really was grumpy if I was thinking that way about the mortals on Regalia. I didn’t really mean it… I’d let Reyth warn them, of her own volition, and I knew the actual damage would be intense but very brief. It was far too late to come up with a better solution that wouldn’t cause the quakes. I took a deep breath and looked at the message again.

| CROWN: Don’t stop her, but feel free to put warnings on it. I don’t care if she stumbles through that, but I didn’t expect her to hook up with another mortal like that. I’d feel pretty awful if this Genev girl got sucked into it unaware.

| AKASHA: Okay. And Genev is pretty nice. Maybe you’ll get to meet her, I think you’d like her sass.

| CROWN: Right, because what I need in my life is more women with sass.

| AKASHA: Speaking of women with sass, you should be getting a visitor soon. Praise her, she’s done really well!

Akasha was getting a little weird of late. Nothing worrying, by my estimation, but a lot more open about telling me what to do. I didn’t mind it, exactly. She’d never demanded anything, just made statements like that more often. I chalked it up to her growing up.

“Maybe I should have made natural disasters a little more common,” I muttered. “What’s the norm for other worlds anyway, Artemis? I haven’t really interviewed any of the other administrators about that sort of thing. Do they just let disasters happen naturally, or put them on some kind of trigger?”

Artemis hopped onto my end table again, sitting there and swinging her legs. I had long since gotten used to this. It wasn’t like she could knock anything off and break it, but I think she did it just to see me twitch.

“You’re backwards from most,” she answered lightly. “I’m not saying none of the others have ever done things your way, but it’s a lot more common to make a species and then leave them completely alone, but cause any adversities like disasters manually. You tend to do the opposite… you drop down and fuss with people a lot more than most should, and it works out despite the penalty. But you only let disasters happen by natural means or cycles.”

I scratched my head and muttered, “That isn’t the impression I got from Diamon… maybe I just made some assumptions.”

“Diamon is an extremely experienced administrator,” the Terminal argued. “You baffle him, but he has tried various methods for running worlds, and he’s generally right when he says something. You happen to go so far out of bounds even he can’t predict you, but it usually doesn’t take long for him to understand what happened. You should talk to him more often.”

The suggestion made me grimace. I’d worked with Diamon more than once and even sought out his help, but he was too ruthless for my tastes. Maybe that was what I needed, sometimes… but I didn’t have to like it.

I squinted at the notification. I hadn’t known Ember had a Terminal… that was new. Maybe that was what Akasha was talking about, since last I’d heard the Terminal creation in the interface was offline for everyone, not just me. I let her in with a frown. I only had a little over an hour left, so this had better be quick.

“Visitor… Ember sent a Terminal. Didn’t know you could do that, but I guess it makes sense,” I muttered.

When the door opened, the creature that stepped through was not at all what I’d expected of Ember. The volcano-like girl was all I’d seen of her, though I knew intellectually that there were other creatures on her world. I also knew there was an opposing ice portion, because she’d told me about it… but I’d never really thought about what sort of creatures lived there.

This was obviously one of those creatures.

She—I assume it was a she, but I’d have to ask to confirm—stood much shorter than Ember herself, who sometimes had to use a size filter. This one appeared to be barely more than a meter tall in its natural state, and walked hunched over. A long tail swayed behind her to keep her balance, and her forelimbs were delicate and precise.

Unlike Ember’s ebon skin with magma highlights, Krysta was a cool blue with frosty white highlights. Her body rippled like liquid, yet somehow held together, and a mane of bristling ice crystals constantly shedding snow erupted from her back and the top of her head. With a short muzzle full of sharp teeth and a pair of beady eyes, she looked like a cross between a gremlin and a hedgehog made of ice.

“Ember apologizes she cannot arrive in person, but wishes to observe the changes to her world directly for a while longer,” came a melodic, playful voice. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but the careful and precise speech wasn’t it. “It is nice to meet all of you. Who am I speaking to?”

Artemis slid off the table and approached Krysta curiously. “Artemis, Terminal of Orpheus. Now this is a surprise… did Ember form you without an interface? What’s your purpose? Limitations and scope?”

“Let her breathe a little, Artie!” Grem laughed, kicking back in his seat and putting his feet up. “Of course she did it without the interface! Ember’s not dumb… she saw it could be done so she figured it out!” He twitched one ear and peered at Krysta. “You do breathe, right? Like, normally? Obviously you don’t here but… uh, anyway. I’m Grem, official pain in the ass for Donut here.”

I didn’t interrupt. Honestly it was fascinating to watch this… three Terminals interacting with a high degree of autonomy. I wasn’t sure where autonomous Terminals ended and a complete new being began, even with an accident like Duck. She’d been able to become her own administrator… so why didn’t administrators just duplicate instead of yanking souls out?

Or was that the normal process, and Ember and I were just exceptions Orpheus had made out of desperation? It hadn’t really occurred to me that every other administrator may have never been born a mortal.

Except that didn’t line up… new administrators were using the interface to get started. A Terminal wouldn’t need one. The question was going to haunt me now, until I had a chance to interrogate Artemis.

“Krysta,” the hedgehog introduced for the benefit of those who didn’t have the introductory box. “I audit and stabilize the world when Ember is busy making changes, and will take over most tasks when she chooses an avatar later. I can’t enter a world, only sanctuaries and other higher realms.”

I listened to the three chatter for another few moments, then cleared my throat loudly. “It’s nice to meet you, Krysta, but could you tell us why you’re here? I do have to get back to my incarnation, and you can chat with the others while I’m down there.”

“Apologies!” Krysta singsonged in reply. “Ember wanted me to observe you and your world for a little while. The System is integrating into her world, and it’s acting differently from an incursion but also doing strange things. She wants to make sure that it isn’t affecting your worlds, and to see if I can trace the source of the instability.”

Instability? I frowned at the term. That didn’t sound good, especially with Akasha linked into it. Though Akasha had just spoken to me and seemed fine, even telling me to praise her… which I hadn’t done yet. I should do that.

“Right… good idea and good work on that,” I said. “I’ll give you some limited ability to see what’s going on. Grem, can you share your viewport with her as well as Artemis? Nothing sensitive in it, is there?”

Grem grinned at me. “Aside from you looking like a dork? Naw, nothing dangerous to show. I haven’t seen anything weird with the System though, and Akasha hasn’t complained. What sort of problems are you having, anyway?”

The fact that my Terminal asked that instead of me made me scratch my head again. Even Duck had rarely been that forward. Was I just bad at making Terminals? Was Grem going to screw me over?

I sighed and glanced at Artemis, but she was smirking at me. She shook her head, and I took that to mean I shouldn’t worry. Apparently this was normal.

Despite the reassurance, I resolved to find a way to make sure there wasn’t some bizarre Terminal rebellion about to happen. With their limited scope that didn’t seem likely, but everything else had been getting stranger.

Krysta looked at me instead of Grem at least. “Instability. Numbers mean different things depending on where in the world someone is. In some places the System stops working entirely. Akasha and Ember think they have a reason, but want more data. When you have a chance to look, you should visit, but Akasha said you would be busy until the end of this cycle.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. “I’m in the middle of an incarnation and using a trick to keep somewhat active, but I think if I left my sanctuary it would cause problems. Maybe not, but I’d rather not find out, so—”

I stopped talking as another message box popped up, and it was so similar I almost waved it away. Then I paused and read it again with a sinking sensation in my nonexistent stomach. Of course this would happen now. Of course it would pop up when I was on the verge of being yanked back into Reese.