12 Miles Below

The connection came like an idle slap. A simple and curt request. Anything Relinquished asked was always an unworded demand.

If To’Wrathh didn’t answer, she’d be admitting guilt by default. There really was no other choice but to accept.

The world went white. Before To’Wrathh was a massive ornate throne in which a small woman sat, wreathed in violet flowers growing across her arms, a hand idly propping her cheek up. The silver crown floating above her head made no doubts as to who she was, if her eyes already hadn’t. They glinted with disinterested malice, buried under a veil of false care.

“Greetings, Mother.” To’Wrathh said, giving a full and proper bow. “You requested my presence?”

The woman smiled, “My dear daughter, I’ve been away for so long handling that dreadful Tsuya. I was meaning to check in on your progress. I see you’ve reported complete success?”

“I have discovered the information you wished to know and I have killed the humans as well.” To’Wrathh said without emotion. “The two items has eluded our grasp, both the orb and the metal box. We will need to wait until the Deathless returns before we can resume our investigation on that. Please forgive the delay on this front.”

Relinquished huffed. “A pity, though ultimately harmless now. That orb was quite important in the past, not so much now that Tsuya found some way to build an army of the pests without those. I’m far more disappointed the box slipped by your grasp, that was an unknown. Carless of you.”

“Forgive me Mother, I had no option on that.”

Relinquished’s eyebrow raised, “Oh? Excuses my dear? Well then, explain away. What stopped you?”

“To’Aacar killed the Deathless too early. That human had been our only lead on the whereabouts of the items. Until he returns to life, we cannot question him.” To’Wrathh said, keeping her tone diplomatic. This was nothing more than a report. She would deliver it.

Relinquished sighed. “Always so excitable, isn’t he? Chasing after his feuds, seeing old enemies in every shadow. And speaking of him, I see he’s vanished from the world. I cannot even reach him through the Unity fractal, curious, no? I wonder if he’d failed so miserably as to attempt to flee me? Silly little thing, thinking he could hide anything from me.”

A violet eye stared down at To’Wrathh.

“I am unsure of To’Aacar’s whereabouts, my lady.” She lied. “I completed the tasks I could and have not had further contact with my elder brother since. If he has been able to hide from your sight, I have little hope of doing better. Did he leave anything behind that might help locate him?”

If Relinquished knew what To’Wrathh had done, it was already over, and Mother was simply toying with her now. She had to keep going on the assumption Relinquished hadn’t found out yet. Keith had been very explicit about throwing her older brother ‘out the airlock and under the speeder’ with extreme prejudice. It was a traditional Winterscar maneuver to pull off in her situation, as Keith explained. The plan had merit, and she'd done her due diligence earlier to make it happen.

Relinquished seem to be on board with this so far. “His last few reports have been…” She waved a hand around, looking for the right word. “Dramatic.” The woman sighed, and waved her hand. “No matter. He’s no longer important. I’ll find wherever he’s crept off to, and drag him back to answer me. He'll pay one way or another. They always do.” She shifted in her throne, sitting up and leaning forward. “But nevermind that unpleasant topic. What have you uncovered of my dear sister from those two humans she spoke with?”

To’Wrathh send a data request to the server and waited for its acceptance. The world shifted, now showing from a first point of view. This was from To’Aacar’s perspective, when he had met the human a second time, demanding answers. To’Aacar’s logs hadn’t been private, sent out in batches to be saved within servers. She found he had begun to encrypt his recordings shortly after she’d healed Tamery, likely having suspected her betrayal at that point. But the encryptions hadn’t been impossible to crack, and To'Wrathh had days to break them open. With those logs uncovered, she’d seen exactly what he’d sent up until his last transition.

She’d downloaded and deleted most of the files that could lead suspicion against her, going deep into the roots to make sure those were all truly gone. After which she deleted a bit more, to trim up the reports and make them look like To’Aacar himself had been sloppy. She couldn't do much against reports that had been already sent out and read, though she could root out every other part.

It would have to do.

“My elder brother gained some answers to the bunker, however he lost his patience and fought with the human shortly after.” She noted, waiting for the recording to reach the combat point. She felt no worry for the remaining recording, as she’d chopped off the part of Keith’s death, suggesting that To’Aacar deleted the recording to preserve evidence of his defeat against humans. The very next recording had him limping, using his occult jump to escape further, going for the city.

In reality he’d been trying to reach the city before To’Wrathh could, but the memory fragment left behind implied a different context given her creative edits. This would be the last the world would see of To’Aacar. Broken down and running away. Her elder brother would be beyond furious, knowing such a thing was his epitaph in history.

“The human had too many soldiers, weapons and reinforcements for To’Aacar to handle correctly and they forced him to escape. This is the last contact I had with him, incidentally. I apprehended the human in their city and had a far better position to gain intelligence from there.”

To’Wrathh switched the recording, this time showing events from her point of view. The room in the memory fragment was well lit, of Undersider architecture. At the center was a bound human male with scruffy hair. Her target. To’Wrathh watched the replay, keeping her mind still and emotions in lockstep.

“This is the conclusion, human.” She said within the recording to the bound man, reaching a hand out to his chin and lifting up to match his gaze. “Your city is lost. Your armies and allies crushed. The Deathless has been killed, and you have no one to turn to anymore. You’ve escaped a few times, that was admirable for a human, however this is where you should know better. Tell me what I want, and I will spare the rest of the people here.”

Keith spat. That hadn’t been part of the script they’d come up with, but To’Wrathh had easily improvised, moving fast enough to swat the spittle out of the air with the flat of a wingtip as if dealing with an insect. “Charming.” She said. “Very well, let me make this more clear. Each minute you refuse to speak, I will order a hundred humans killed at random in the city. Do we understand each other?”

The boy glared, held firm for a moment, and then deflated. “Fine, I’ll.. I’ll tell you what you want. Just leave the people here out of it. Nothing in the bunker is worth much anyhow, you’re going to be disappointed.”

To’Wrathh let go of his chin and paced around. “What happened in the bunker?” She began.

And Keith answered.

Most of it was truth. Some fictional. A few bits that would entertain the lady, without revealing anything too important. Keith expertly delivered his lines, and To’Wrathh hardly had to do anything dramatic. It matched with what he’d told To’Aacar, only now there were more details and context to weave into a fitting narrative.

She hit all the topics needed. Everything Tsuya said. The events in the bunker. Eventually winding down to the last few questions. “On your person, you had a black box on your belt and a golden orb. Where are those two items now?” To’Wrathh’s recording asked.

Keith shrugged. “Lord Atius took both. Last he spoke to us, he had already sent it along through traders to another Undersider city, to the imperials.”

“You didn’t answer my question, human. Where are the two items?”

“I don’t kn--"

To'Wrathh's sword quickly met Keith's throat, pressing slightly. Occult blades were dull, no trail of blood or broken skin came of it. The threat was ice clear however. All she had to do was turn the blade on. "I asked a question. I expect an answer."

"It-it’s probably in some priest’s hands, with the imperials! They get it secreted away somewhere in their vaults. I’m just a regular knight, they wouldn’t tell me things like that! I don't even work with them, all Lord Atius would have to do is hand over the orb and that's it. He wouldn't keep something like that, I think.”

"You think?"

"I don't know!" Keith hissed out. "I'm just taking the best guess I can think of! You're the one putting a blade at my throat."

"And the black box you carried on your belt?"

"Also handed it over to Lord Atius. You need to ask him where he put it, for all I know he might have dug a hole somewhere and buried it. He didn't tell any of us for operational security, in case we were taken alive exactly like this!"

Convincing enough. She continued to badger him for more information, but the human remained stubborn, claiming ignorance. He gave a few suggestions and hunches, all inaccurate and with little evidence to be found. Exactly on script so far. She’d doctored the footage itself so that any attempt to search for lies based on voice inflection would result in a false-negative.

“Is that everything?” To’Wrathh had asked at the end.

The human nodded. “Everything I remember. I swear on all the gods, Relinquished showed up before Tsuya could say anything actually important. I’m no Imperial, I don’t have any money riding on those cards. Lord Atius would know more, but he’s dead right now. No thanks to your partner."

“In that case, I have no further use for you.” She brought one of her sword before her eyes, turned it on casually and stabbed the boy directly into his stomach. This part had been real and Keith’s reaction was exactly as expected of someone stabbed in the gut.

Namely, he howled out in pain and cursed a few times, blood splattering down his shirt and pooling at his feet. To’Wrathh drew the sword out, flicked the bits of gore and viscera off of it in one contemptuous move.

The human before her squirmed in his bindings, coughing and panting. She used her medical suite to scan and test the human’s wounds. Results quickly appeared, showing the exact time of death expected, the data easily shared and read by Mother. The wound was fatal and her systems agreed with that assessment, knowing no medical practice or surgery that could heal such a wound.

She’d spent some time researching exactly where to stab Keith for the most dramatic effect. Something that Mother could verify had no possible resolution other than death, but was not an instant death sentence, such as a beheading.

“As a reward for your cooperation, I’ll allow you to live for a few hours more.” To’Wrathh had said. “Gastric perforation with a lacerated liver should see your life wink out in… three to four hours. Enjoy the extra time I’ve so graciously allowed you. Worry not, you won’t be alone wherever you ultimately go. I’ll see your sister next. No need to thank me human, I do so out of the kindness of my own heart.”

"An... and... the city?" Keith wheezed out.

"Mine to do with as I please."

"You... lied?"

"You seem to misunderstand, I am under no obligation to follow deals made with insects. Farewell."

She turned and walked off, leaving the room behind. The feed cut, and a new data package was loaded. A similar room, and Kidra was next, tied up to a chair like her brother had been.

This part was the one To’Wrathh was most nervous of. If Mother asked to see the full details in between Keith’s ‘death’ and walking into Kidra’s interrogation room, she’d have seen To’Wrathh turn and sprint right back into the room, using her fractal power to heal the boy all the while profusely apologizing.

As it was, she hoped Mother would simply assume To’Wrathh was skipping the unimportant parts.

Fortunately, Mother did not ask. Relinquished watched with a faint smile at the theatrics, waiting to see the results of the second interrogation.

It passed by with the same setup. Kidra refused to cooperate, To’Wrathh claimed she would murder innocent people until the girl spoke, and then the willpower crumbled away. Kidra gave the same events, with the same details, since the two had previously worked together on keeping their stories straight. After which, To’Wrathh stabbed the girl in the same manner, gloating about both siblings dying the same death. All things she thought To’Aacar would have done, had he been in her position and still alive. She needed to act the part of a ruthless Feather that hated humanity like all her siblings.

And, of course, off camera, she’d run back in to heal the Winterscar back to health. Kidra had been a lot less chatty and far more to the point about all this. Keith had been rather easy to gain forgiveness from in comparison. Food, further discussions on engineering topics and card games were all he asked. Kidra had remained stony and refused to give any suggestions on what To’Wrathh could do for forgiveness, other than a cryptic demand for a future favor.

Keith claimed it was political wheeling and dealing, Kidra being dramatic. Tenisent gave her more details, reminding her that his daughter had survived House Winterscar at it's peak, all the while struggling to shield his drunken lost self and caring for her errant little brother. The girl had learned to take any opportunity that came. The undisclosed favor was exactly this, nothing personal.

That didn’t make the Feather worry any less.

“As you can see,” To’Wrathh said, ending the recording before any of the deception could be shown, “Humans are a social creature by nature and form quick bonds. Simply threatening the lives of their peers was enough to break their will. Both humans have been dispatched as of now, since I have confirmed Tsuya’s words in the bunker. The last human that could have seen the events was a Deathless, one Atius that you spoke to directly. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned, my mentor had already gone and killed him, using a weapon that would not allow him to return for another few months or even a year. He did not follow proper protocol or my suggestions.”

She brought up some of To’Aacar’s own logs for this again, showcasing the Feather’s research into a more permanent way to murder Atius and the blade he eventually forged for the task. There wasn’t any footage of the actual murder, since To’Aacar had sent humans to do the work for him, likely believing it to be the greatest irony.

The Feather loved to obsessively salt wounds wherever he could.

“A shame.” Relinquished said, waving away the data, the world returning to the present. “It seems I interceded too quickly in their discussions. However, it’s clear to me that we have another problem on hand. Your defective mentor. Near the end, he was sending me the most curious and increasingly strange reports. I worry for all my children, of course. Some more than others. Have you noticed his decline? These strings of foolish choices bode most poorly on him. And I quite despise when my instruments forget their… place.”

To’Wrathh stopped herself from gulping, and schooled her features. “I found elder brother to have many... paranoid delusions. I believe his loss of a hand caused a cascade of failures within his mind. It went directly against his name, to have been crippled. He was also challenged and defeated by humans who had come up with new weapons that could have been easily countered, had he not been careless. This likely further sent him over the edge.”

He had his hand cut by his rival, been humiliated before Mother’s steel grasp, and was half destroyed by the very humans he’d sneered at. It’s well within possibility that his mental state was far too damaged to be coherent. To’Wrathh knew that hadn’t been the case. He’d remained coldly sane all the way to the end, refusing to turn against Mother and following his directive to death.

But no one else knew that.

She pulled out of the archive his first fight with Keith, showcasing his shell’s near complete destruction before his escape. “I pulled this record from an archived duplicate. The original was not found within his submitted logs. I believe he was too proud to report his full damages to you, or he feared your reprisal. You had let him know a second failure would mean destruction.”

Relinquished looked through the footage with intrigue. “Such a silly child.” She said. “Running away from a single human. No wonder the fool went into hiding. A lamentable end to an otherwise excellent operational history. I’m quite pleased you hunted down this human and didn’t fall into the same traps that your predecessor did.” Relinquished leaned back in her throne, pondering. “He was among my better Feathers, you know, if somewhat outclassed by some of his more specialized peers of that generation. Perhaps he was growing outdated without my notice? Age happens to break most things I find." She hummed, thinking. "Should send you to search for him? Or would you rather take a moment to consolidate your gains under your banner? He’s certainly lost such privileges when I find him, consider everything of his yours now. It is how the world turns.”

Things were looking quite good, To’Wrathh thought. Mother had bought the interrogation and was now suspecting To’Aacar of incompetence instead of studying To’Wrathh for treachery. Keith’s technique of throwing the brick, blaming the neighbor and running away was working. She only needed to stay the course.

“Mother, if I may, I’d like to remain in the current location to continue running tests on the local human population now that I have them under my control. The Chosen are proving to be interesting to study, and with a supply of humans, I’ll be able to discover further weaknesses in their cohesion. I believe it will let me ferret them out better in the future.”

Relinquished smiled jovially at her. “Inquisitive, aren’t we? Very well. I have my answers, and I have other means to find To'Aacar. I’ll allow you this boon.” She paused for a moment, as if remembering a detail. “Ah, but there is something of note. I’ve detected intrusions into the archive by rogue programs. Searching for information that’s quite suspicious. Stemming from near your location. Perhaps some of your human experiments are attempting to root through our belongings?"

"I will investigate and take actions should I find this to be the case." To'Wrathh said, keeping calm.

"Eliminate them when you find them, I do not suffer such annoyances.”

“It will be done,” To’Wrathh said without hesitation.

Relinquished gave her a deeper smile. “I expect nothing less. You may go.” She waved a lazy hand and To’Wrathh’s connection was cut.

The pale lady watched the tiny Feather vanish from her domain, retreating back to that small shell of hers like a terrified hermit crab.

She remained behind sitting on her digital throne, content, a soft smile on her features. “My dear Abdication, you would have been so pleased at the speed. She’s made quite the progress.” She hummed to herself.

To’Aacar’s loss was unexpected, but nothing that would way-lay results. He’d done the majority of his part admirably already. He’d miserably failed the rest, which she hadn’t expected at all. Silly thing. That hadn't been part of the script.

No matter. Feathers were only tools, expendable. Only one Feather in existence had proved irreplaceable, and yet even now his plans still moved as he'd predicted. Faster even, To'Wrathh had been too perfect of a candidate. He couldn't have predicted that.

Everything of importance was still going according to schedule. She could simply replace To’Aacar’s role with another. Something else could push her project to become the deadly venomous shiv she needed. There were many ways to supply the pressure and adversity to sharpen a blade. Her hand searched through the roster, seeking for the right whetstone.

She found him easily.

A coward of a program. A sneaky thief that had somehow ghosted past her filters, ending up at the top slot among the competition for the next open shell, all by abusing the rules and bending the competition in ways they could not counter conventionally. She hadn’t noticed at the time, allowing the weakling through without much thought.

But, what was done was done, and by the time she’d realized the imposter had slipped by, he was already in command of the new shell of that month and there were no easy ways to pry him out without destroying the expensive shell itself.

Relinquished had hoped she was wrong about the little program. That it would surprise her in some way.

She’d been soundly disappointed.

Hardly ten years in operation with the vast majority of combat marked as retreats. A failure of a Feather. The runt of his generation. And worse, she knew the program would remain static. He began as a failure and thus he could never be more than a failure. Abdication’s improved method of creating loyal Feathers came with a steep loss of potential power compared to the originals of his generation, but it guaranteed they would not entertain treachery once engaged in combat, like the rest of his siblings had. And thus far, it had proven the test of time, all these centuries later.

This weakling would be perfect for the work. She’d grind away a thorn in her heel with the same move.

A request was sent out. One of my Feathers has run away. To’Aacar. Find him.

She received a confirmation ping from him and nothing more. As almost an afterthought, Relinquished folded two other Feathers of average quality nearby under his leadership, to even the odds out. Just enough to make things interesting.

After all, what was waiting at the end of his mission had killed one of her second generation Feathers. It was only fair.

Next chapter - Dinner is served

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