119: Embedded
Chapter 119: Embedded
CROWN
The typical announcements of the Perception Filter engaging preceded Orpheus stepping into my Sanctuary again.
“How is it that you have made my interface look nearly incomprehensible?”
Duck and I both looked up from our projects. I was monitoring the developing conflict between the pillbugs – the Scourge as they called them – and the rooken-elf-dwarf alliance. Of course, not every nation in the Homelands had allied with either, but the vast majority were working with the rooken tribes, and even had some sort of outreach explorers to find and recruit new rooken. It was an unusual level of proactiveness on the part of the elves, and I’d suspected Akasha had been behind it.
She’d assured me that in this case, it was actually the elves doing it. She’d taken credit for a number of other helpful developments, but apparently the threat of actual extinction had finally spurred the elves into doing something of their oven volition, even without Quests. I could only hope it was the start of a trend.
Duck was deep into studying the quirky pair of dungeons that had settled on swapping their creatures. That was incredibly interesting to me, as well, but she seemed to have personal stake in it. At least the polyform colonies of the insect-people were interacting more with the vaskan, even if most of those interactions had been violent.
I motioned for Duck to go back to watching and turned to greet Orpheus.
“This wasn’t anything intentional,” I insisted. “It just sort of happened. I’m not fully sure why, though we have some theories at least. What does it look like to you?”
Orpheus sighed and adjusted her glasses. The purple-haired woman gave me a vexed scowl. “My interface doesn’t translate well, but the nearest I can describe it is that the description is missing words, and some of it is nonsense. I can tell you’ve gained a new ability that is normally reserved for Rank 10, but you are still missing your Rank 9 audit ability.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose and grumbled. “Of course we’re stuck with an ability we can’t afford instead of the one we wanted…”
“That happens sometimes.” Orpheus stepped closer to me and looked me up and down. “Structurally, your world – your soul, I suppose you could say – still appears stable. If anything it’s… oh dear. That could be a problem.”
Once again, I was struck by the casual and familiar way Orpheus spoke. She’d been formal before, and struggled with references and mannerisms, yet now she was… almost human? Or had my ideas of humanity changed so much? Or was this a result of her own fatigue? Certainly, when she stepped close, I saw the faint hint of dark circles under her eyes.
Which made no sense for a being that didn’t need to sleep. Was the Perception Filter giving that appearance? If so… did it mean anything?
“A problem?” I asked. “And you should sit down. I’m not sure if it’s the filter or something else, but you look exhausted. I didn’t think we could even get exhausted…”
Orpheus waved away my concern with a thin smile. “Physically, we cannot, but I am very strained mentally right now. It took me the better part of a cycle to get to you after you called simply because I am doing visits like these a lot. This is something of a relief, your cycle time is much slower than some of the others. I can afford to be thorough here.”
She was very tired, I could tell. She was speaking about things that I hadn’t learned yet, but I could get the idea from context. Somehow, other Administrators were running a ‘faster clock’ so that interacting with them was like speeding up her personal clock. Which meant…
“In your subjective time, how long has it been since we had that big meeting? The one with all the other Administrators?”
The petite woman looked up at me and adjusted her eyeglasses again. “Hmm. Converting to your time measurements… it has been a little over 47 hours for me.”
Her visit with Ember had taken several hours. What had been a quick and brief interruption for me had been a large chunk of her preparation time, from her perspective. Considering I knew the other Administrators could slow down time for their worlds just as I could, this was very confusing to me.
But it also wasn’t the immediate concern.
“As for the problem, it is a problem for the cluster,” Orpheus continued without regard for my internal thoughts. “Ironically it makes you more secure in some ways, even if it makes you an even bigger target. You have started to become an Anchor Being, and I am not certain how.”
She must have sensed my oncoming question, because she held up a hand to forestall me. A gesture conjured up the vague globe of the cluster again. My own world lit up in green – I instinctively knew it was mine – and then numerous others lit up in yellow, with lines of red connecting all of them… including a very thin, barely pulsing red line touching my world.
“I said before that the cluster has certain metaphysical concepts that determine whether or not a world is within the cluster.” The globe turned slowly. “The previous High Administrator’s worlds determined these concepts, and are more deeply buried within the universal substrate. We call these Anchor Worlds, and their owner the Anchor Being.”
She tapped the globe, and my world lit up more brightly.
“Before you get too excited, this does not mean you are now the central being of the cluster,” Orpheus added with a frown toward me. She’d probably guessed that I had just that thought. “A cluster can have more than one Anchor Being, but it makes you more difficult to drift out of the cluster. Unfortunately, it also means that if they do manage to pull you out, they can drag quite a few more with them.”
That sounded dangerous. “Uh… so what’s the upside? Aside from being more stable?” I hoped there was one.
Unfortunately my boss just shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been an Anchor Being. I have limited access to the High Administrator interface, but the Anchor Being remains the previous High Administrator. None of my worlds have calcified enough.”
“And mine did,” I muttered. “And you have no idea why…”
Orpheus walked over toward the massive display. “No. You are generating an unusually high amount of energy, but that is normal for you, and you’ve had larger proportionate spikes. So have others. Some of your other details are now difficult for me to read.”
She tapped the frame of her glasses again.
“For example,” she offered. “Before, you had nineteen Sub-Terminals and one Terminal. Duck is a little unusual, but now I cannot get a read on her at all beyond presence, and it keeps oscillating between you having another Terminal, or an extra Sub-Terminal or even two or three more. The reading on how many Sub-Terminals are ensouled is also fluctuating wildly.”
At this point, I was certain that if I had possessed a stomach, it would have felt ill. I cleared my throat. “Well… it’s not as if an ensouled Sub-Terminal can just appear, right? Even if the entire world believes the sun is a deity with a personality, it can’t just conjure up a soul and inhabit it, can it?”
“In general, no,” Orpheus agreed. “While spontaneous generation of souls the Administrator has not designed has happened, it is usually rare and the result of abiogenesis or some equivalent process. Even then, they would not be a Sub-Terminal. If you were trying to plan something around that, I’m sorry but I don’t believe that will work.”
By this time, Duck had finished with whatever she had been doing – I received an approval request so knew she had completed her task – and wandered over to join the two of us. Her tail swayed lightly and she twitched ears back and forth as I spoke to Orpheus.
She broke in now with an idle question. “What about Ember? Has she shown any strange results?”
Violet hair tumbled as Orpheus shook her head. “Nothing too far outside of expectations. Then again, she is only Rank 5, so it may be that the anomalies simply haven’t shown yet. Her growth curve is excellent but not abnormal like your own.”
“Keep an eye on her,” I suggested. “It may be a result of me being from the High Administrator’s world originally. Were any other Administrators from Earth?”
Orpheus tucked her arms behind her and started to pace back and forth, idly looking at the section of the world we were currently located at. “Oh, a few, but they are all stable and secure, not in any danger even during the incursions we’ve been dealing with. They are minor enough that the all hands meeting did not include them. You and Ember are the only recent trainees that stayed stable after the Fourth Epoch, however. Most of the others merged back with the original universe.”
That surprised me. It only took creativity to differentiate enough to prevent a merge, so that meant most of the people pulled from Earth wouldn’t have strayed too far from the formula. I didn’t remember my exact life, but I remembered crackpot theories like Flat Earth being common, so the lack of variety was truly bizarre.
“So we aren’t in danger of being pulled into another cluster.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose again. “We’re just getting more eyes on us. So what’s the real problem?”
Orpheus turned and spread her hands – another very ‘human’ gesture from someone that was supposedly from a universe with different geometry – and shook her head again. “The problem is that I have a limited ability to help you now. You are exploring new ground that I have not seen before, even as High Administrator. I can still see your world’s condition, of course, but its trajectory is very uncertain.”
Duck gave me a glance before following up with a question to the High Administrator. “So you can tell if one of the four ensouled Sub-Terminals are doing anything weird?”
The question caused Orpheus to look curiously at my Terminal, then fuss with her glasses. I realized those must be representing her interface, instead of the earlier clipboard she carried.
“I am not certain what you would term ‘weird’ in this case,” she murmured. “But as far as I am able to tell, they are all operating within their domains as normal. Your Quest system makes it harder for me to tell, it operates differently from most.”
| CROWN: Akasha, are you hiding from Orpheus?
| AKASHA: I don’t know who that is. If it’s another Administrator I hide my presence, yeah.
| AKASHA: I have a lot of power, but I can’t see what’s going on in your Sanctuary-place unless you tell me.
| CROWN: Orpheus is my boss. I’ll keep you secret if you want.
| AKASHA: If Orpheus might know what I am, and you can assure me she won’t try to destroy me, you can tell her.
That was a surprise to me. Akasha had seemed so childlike, in many ways, that I kept forgetting that she was a vast being that constantly dealt with all the System’s quirks and edge cases. She wasn’t stupid, just inexperienced.
Though how to introduce her?
“Is it possible for me to pull a soul from my world to promote to an Administrator? Presuming I have a World Seed available.” I paused just after I asked the question. “Or for you to do so?”
Orpheus raised an eyebrow. “Normally? Yes. Now? You would need to select the soul and do it yourself. As long as they are not living, it is possible.”
I crossed my arms. “And what if they’re an immortal being like an ensouled Sub-Terminal… or just immortal?”
That question drew a frown from her. “More complicated. It would depend on the precise situation. Do you have one of your Sub-Terminals in mind? I generally recommend waiting until the world is further developed.”
With a shake of my head, I sighed. “Not looking to make an Administrator right now, but… we do have someone you need to meet…”