Neophyte World Builder

CROWN

I was glad that I’d managed to think of asking mortals for their opinion. I had the feeling I was naturally the sort of person to overlook important details like that, and my ascension to divinity had made the problem worse. The complaints were sound, I had just completely taken things for granted.

Collapsing onto a chair, I brought up my view of Versus, my new world. It was still running faster than Regalia, my original world, but the differential had lowered considerably. I was now barely getting fifty years for every year that passed on Regalia. Presumably if I increased the time dilation it would apply to both, but I wasn’t quite ready to do that.

Artemis floated down from above, now sporting fairy wings. She was still the size of a human teenager, so the affectation was a little surprising to me. I almost dismissed it… but I really needed the distraction.

“I thought your appearance was based on a Perception Filter… where did the fairy look come from?” I asked. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen the Perception Filter trigger lately.

She alighted next to me with a shrug of the wings. “Orpheus was more confused about the other administrators. Even when she started to understand them, she didn’t trust herself to put on a form that made sense to them. I remember the shapes your filter made, and I’m comfortable enough with what I know to use them as a basis.”

I squinted at her. “It isn’t… uncomfortable for you?”

The fairy grinned and flapped the wings. “Is it uncomfortable for you to have a haptix terminal? I’ve seen Switchboard—at least through the interface—so I know you have one. My original form is a lot different, but over time I just get more flexible. Eventually you’ll be able to comprehend my form and maybe even take that shape.”

Turning back to my vista, I tucked my arms behind my head and just contemplated the universe I’d made while I talked to the Terminal. “I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense. In a lot of ways you’re a lot older and more experienced than I am, but you rarely suggest anything so I tend to forget. Also kind of weird that we administrators don’t have perfect recall.”

“Is it?” Artemis gestured to the display. “Your mind has grown enough that you could easily remember everything in your first life, or even first two or three. Maybe more. But do you think your mind can easily retrieve relevant information from an entire universe? Storage isn’t the problem, it’s finding what’s actually needed.”

I grunted, but the point was made. “I’m going to need to go down there and spread this religion, and I don’t want to. At least I know what to say now, but I know they’ll screw it up. Earth couldn’t even get religion right when they had it in writing right in front of them, and that’s assuming it was even translated correctly.”

The odd look Artemis gave me forced me to close my eyes and calm myself. I didn’t normally get worked up like that when in this fake body, but even god-beings suffered from stress. Internally, I filed away what I’d just said as one more clue as to what sort of person I’d been before losing my memory. I wasn’t too impressed with the results, but they were pretty complicated and it looked like I wasn’t a complete wreck. Still far too little information for me to figure anything out.

Something to think about later. It was more a hobby at this point, rather than something I had a real investment in.

“Did your experiment with the soul from your original world work well?” Artemis asked, possibly in an attempt to get me to focus on something. This Terminal was far more aware of my feelings and needs than Orpheus had ever been. That sort of skill—the ability to make a Terminal with such a wildly different observational pattern—was one I really wished I had.

“Mostly,” I answered. “It told me what I needed to know for soul transfers, but I do wish she’d given me more energy. She very nearly introduced a massive change in the way the two sides relate to one another, but she backed out at the very end.” I opened my eyes to stare at Versus again. “I can’t really blame her, but that was always a tertiary objective anyway. I owe her for the first two, so if she’s happy then I guess it’s fine.”

In a moment of curiosity, I pulled up my interface to zoom in on Downside, looking up Sara’s location. I hoped she was happy, at least. I found her rapidly thanks to the tag I had on her soul, then took a quick peek and…

I quickly closed out the window. I didn’t feel shame about it, but I could still respect privacy. It was telling that my intrusive thought in those few moments was the realization that mortal vaskan could find some truly creative ways to use their totems.

“So anyway,” I muttered. “I know this is a bad idea, but I really do miss how Duck helped with some of this stuff. I’m tempted to try creating a Terminal to fill that role again… but deliberately design it this time. With how bad it worked out before, I don’t think that would end well for me.”

Artemis tilted her head. “I don’t know what happened to Duck, but she was created by accident. I think you should make a new assistant. You’re trying to do too many things at once, and this is exactly what Terminals are for.”

I waved a hand at her. “Duck was manipulating my mind. It was benign—I think—but I still couldn’t trust her. I had to send her off to another cluster. I can still feel her, faintly… just like I can feel Orpheus, just not very clearly. I bet Switchboard can trace both of them more easily.”

The fairy’s wings fluttered. “You should definitely create a new Terminal for this purpose, Regalia,” she said sternly. “I understand the reluctance… you’re worried the new one will turn out exactly the same, with the same reliability problem. Yet you can’t just make a dumb Terminal like Switchboard… they need to have a personality to fill the role you need them to fill, just like I have one that’s different from Orpheus. But there’s something you’ve forgotten.”

Before I could object, Artemis hopped over to stand in the middle of the ethereal projection of Versus. “You created Duck by accident because you felt the need and you hadn’t properly figured out how to channel your soul. You’ve already broken the ranking system, and we aren’t sure how you do half the things you do. If you don’t address this need, you’re likely to create another Duck… one that is fully aware you view him or her as dangerous, and might take steps immediately.”

That was a thought I hadn’t considered yet, and I grimaced as it rolled around in my head. She was right, of course. She might look like a child, but Artemis was far, far older than I was in her memories. Probably. I’d never actually asked, but that had been my assumption.

Then again, Earth’s time flowed weirdly slow compared to everything else. I couldn’t check the exact date, nor was I certain when I’d died, but Sara had seemed roughly as familiar with technology and culture as I was. She couldn’t have been that far into the future from me, even accounting for the reincarnation queue. She might have been in there for a few years, making her memories not quite up to date with current, but decades seemed unlikely.

Or was it?

I’d never asked Ember what she remembered of her life on Earth. Were we even from the same time period? Or generation? Obviously she was from modern day due to her attitude and general understanding, but that could be anywhere from the 1970s to… whenever I died, which I was sure was after the turn of the millennium.

I looked again at my new world. Magical research was exploding across many of the bubbles, and the variable laws I’d implanted there had led to some more bizarre planetary formations than expected. One bubble had a giant tree with branches entwined among the planets, lit by the bubble itself. Another had no light at all, but somehow had life. I saw geocentric and heliocentric systems, and even one where the bubble had firmed enough that people just walked along the inside.

Managing two worlds was, in fact, getting to be a lot of work. Even with all the time I had on my hands, it was a monumental effort to just keep focus and juggle what needed to be done. I’d been spoiled having Duck around for my exploits on Regalia, and now I was trying to handle both those and Versus alone.

Artemis was right. I needed a Terminal, whether I was worried about it or not. I’d already created Switchboard, even if he was less independent. Yet for this I needed someone who could develop their own personality after a fashion.

Was this what it was like to pine after a toxic girlfriend? I wanted Duck back even though it would be terrible for me! I took some solace in the feeling of my connection to her pointing vaguely in the same direction as Orpheus. Not that direction had much meaning here, but I presumed my interpretation would translate it into something like a direction.

“Fine,” I said out loud. “All right little fairy, I’ll look at making a Terminal. I just hope I don’t bungle it up. It’s on you if I do.”

The Terminal smiled, hands behind her back, and fluttered wings again with a sparkle of dust. Very unlike the “faeries” I had created for my world, and more like the classic sort in children’s stories, which somehow unnerved me more.

Before I lost my nerve, I concentrated on the Terminal I wanted. Someone to take a more mortal viewpoint for me, but who could handle all the smaller details of world management while I handled the architecture. Devoted to that track of mind and in keeping things fair for mortals, but able to negotiate. Finally, I tried to inject some personality into them… and let them choose their base form, just like Duck had. All throughout my thought process, I made sure to strictly keep my own operation a forbidden area. No interference with me, beyond debate and suggestion.

Once again, I felt a small portion of my available energy break away, a faint tether pulsing out to a lump of my soul. I shuddered at that feeling. It was still me, just like Switchboard, but unlike the haptix-self this Terminal was gathering something else as well as my own self. I could immediately sense that it was more distant from me, and that knowing its thoughts would be harder… but it wasn’t the near clean break I’d had with Duck.

A warped, dark blob burst into being next to me, rapidly contorting into a more distinct shape. Arms and legs formed, immediately showing the creature to be short—shorter than an elf, even. Gangly limbs grew and solidified, with an oversized head that at first I thought was childlike… until the huge round eyes formed, and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth and a blunt, upturned nose. Scraggly dark hair formed a mane down its back, along with furred patches along the arms, legs, and front.

I groaned, “Oh come on. Is this really what I asked for?”

The gremlin in front of me hopped up onto the table next to my chair, then flourished a bow with a sweep of his feathered cap off his head.

“Don’t look at me, boss. I’m just the guy you needed, not the one you hoped!”