12 Miles Below

Book 7. Chapter 7: The way forward

To’Wrathh slid under the chain scything above her, one blade already blocking the followup reversal that had unexpectedly killed her last bout.

It did arrive, and was redirected into a feint before the tail end of the whip cracked straight for the floor where she was currently sliding towards. To’Avalis hadn’t done this particular combination of moves prior, but she had seen the tail end whip crack with that heavy mace. Even if it didn’t hit her directly, there were fractals embedded inside that would detonate a shockwave of force, enough to ruin her footwork and leave her vulnerable.

That had been her fifth death against him. She turned her slide into a roll and handsprung herself upwards, continuing the spin until she was right side up and could unfurl her wings outwards. The mace end slammed into the floor and exploded out into the occult shockwave which her wings greedly absorbed and used to carry her upwards.

The chain was recalled back, links being gobbled up by the hilt of that weapon into whatever occult dimensional folding was going on with that weapon. Before the mace actually reached the very hilt, To’Avalis twisted around on himself, forcing the mace to circle around and then fly right at her in a straight line.

She’d seen this move as well, and knew he’d either wrap the chain around her leg if she dodged, or explode the macetip again to knock her out of the air. She dove forward using her wings to propel herself parallel to the chain, directly at To’Avalis himself. One blade warding the chain off, then twisting on herself after a single wingbeat forward. She’d expose her back to him for a moment, but as she had predicted the occult explosion behind her boomed outwards, and this time she was in the right position to absorb it perfectly.

She redirected the newfound energy pushing her downwards, twisting back into a lunge against the enemy Feather.

It worked. Her increased speed from his mace allowed her to bypass the speed of his short dagger’s defense. Three solid hits before To’Avalis was back in control of the bout, his whip retracted back into the hilt enough to be used again in melee range.

Here, she expected the move that killed her sixth attempt against him. And he didn’t fail to deliver, the whip bouncing off the side of a wall near her feet, jumping back up from the force and racing behind her blind spot, seeking to wrap around from her shoulder downwards.

Her wings flicked out, occult edges lighting up on each wingtip, battering off the attempt. She caught him by surprise.

She turned on herself, using the wings to slice away at him. He turned on his heel, avoided the slice, and proceeded forward with a savage kick at her exposed face. Calculations flashed through her mind, debating options. One of her blades flickered up into position, while her arm braced against the other flat end of that blade. His heel would collide against her blade’s defense and be halted, where she could then slide her blade’s occult bladed hilt into his boot, sap away what was left of that shield, all while having her other hand’s blade already in position to run him through. Mathematics of his system’s capabilities, the specs of Keith’s blade and her own internal structure’s resilience all showed green.

She expected him to have run the same calculations and equally come to the conclusion the attack was a failure, and to redirect the kick into another attack of some kind.

To’Avalis committed instead. Face clean of emotions, only calculation and focus.

The kick came, crushing through her defense with far greater force that was mathematically possible for his chassis and shattered through her blade. She saw in slow motion as the shards ripped apart, the occult edge fading on the further sections, leaving her with a glorified dagger.

The heel raced forward for her head, softened only slightly by her personal shield before it snapped her neck backwards.

She awoke a moment later, eyes flashing as she read system updates and reports.

Connection severed with her avatar. Her head had been too sturdy to be crushed by the kick, so the force transferred into her neck, which was then snapped as a result. Now she was back in her physical shell, away from the digital sea.

“That should not have been possible.” Was the first thing she said.

In the shadow of the cave, another pair of softly glowing violet eyes locked against hers. The figure rose, and extended a hand out. She took it, helped up to her feet by both the assistance and her wings giving a light downwards flap.

“Three minutes, seven seconds.” Tenisent said in his usual low growl. He gave her a searching look, then nodded, letting her hand go. “Better. Share the log.”

She did, the data transferring over within a second. At the same time, she sent a ping to search for all the ports she had hooked deep within To’Avalis. Most were closed by now, including the one she’d just used. Her hands brushed off dust and dirt on her legs absentmindedly, keeping herself clean. “I would have survived longer, but I believe he realized I was stalling for time and wanted to deny me as much resources as possible. A pity, I nearly killed him for that.”

Violet eyes flashed for a moment as Tenisent absorbed the fight and scanned through it. “I saw.” He said. Nothing other than those two words, and yet To’Wrathh felt as if she was being judged harshly.

“I had no way of knowing he was capable of snapping my neck with a heel kick. The block should have softened the blow enough to redirect the kick. My spine should have been resistant to a pre-weakened kick at the very least. Instead he overpowered both. That should not have been possible.”

He said nothing back, simply staring at her.

She felt her wings flick in annoyance. “I know I should have aborted the defense and switched when he committed to the kick, you don’t need to tell me. To'Avalis would have aborted his own kick earlier if he’d calculated it wouldn’t have been fatal. I simply don’t understand where he got the additional force from.”

He raised an eyebrow.

She felt silly now. There were dozens of possible sources of additional energy. Anywhere from additional occult reinforcements, to him having updated To’Aacar’s shell with additional power. Or To’Aacar himself having deliberately published incorrect information on his shell long ago so that any future opponents would underestimate his true capabilities.

Or perhaps To’Avalis had really wanted to hit harder than he had any right to, and the digital sea reacted to a strong burst of will. That entire domain was half-separated from physics after all.

Which meant there were ample ways to cheat the system, as her human would have gleefully reminded her. And Winterscars were not the only ones who cheat for every advantage.

“You need more training in that domain.” Tenisent said. Which was all the above answers put into one. “Have you found the next egress point? Time is not on our side.”

She sighed, knowing he meant well. Her trace program returned more failures on locating the open ports she’d been using, now including ones she had planned for later use. Each one clicked red until the end of the list. Which meant he had finally sealed off all entrances into his systems. “No. All ports report non-functional.”

“A pity. We will have to do with the combat data we’ve gained from this.” He folded his arms, eyes closing. Likely already using the latest set of data she’d recorded to update his simulation of To’Avalis for later combat.

“What of his mental state?” Tenisent asked next.

Tenisent was never one for insults. But he was well aware of their effect against opponents with fragile egos. And Feathers were especially prone to that. On first testing the grounds within To’Avalis’s mindscape, he’d had an interesting theory for her to test out.

That soul fractal was inhabited by To’Aacar for five hundred years. It was only recently cut, reforged and occupied by something unnatural to the system. Something will break.

“The passing insults to To’Aacar being a parasite within his own shell seemed to have some effect on To’Avalis.” To’Wrathh said, thinking back on the mindscape she’d seen. “He would act more impulsive each time it was mentioned. But no other effect was noticed. I am unsure if To’Aacar is reforming within his original soul fractal, or some predisposed personality inherent to the shell is influencing To’Avalis. ”

Tenisent stayed silent for a pause, contemplating. “Time will tell.” He eventually said. She gave him a searching look, and he quickly shook his head. “It will not happen to me. I have options you and the rest of your kind do not. I removed the original soul fractal from this chassis and supplanted my own. I’ve learned how to control it directly without any of the software’s assistance long ago now. Independence was my first objective. Most days the vast majority of this shell’s neuromorphic mind are shut off, unneeded. To’Avalis cannot operate his graverobbed corpse without having the mind operational.”

She nodded approval, knowing Tenisent was far too paranoid to allow anything control of the shell besides himself. To’Avalis was equally paranoid, but unfortunately for him, Tenisent was correct that he had far more options available. Feathers could not cut off their own soul fractal, they couldn’t move around freely as humans did.

She walked past him, out to the edge of the entrance. Her hand absentmindedly drew out one of her two blades, eyes looking down to trace the patterns and artwork inscribed over it. Built by Keith himself for her use, and she’d seen its conceptual echo shattered against a kick. That meant in the real fight, it could potentially break. A reminder that misuse of her tools in unknown situations could result in her defeat.

There had been other options that were less risky than using his blade to block a kick, she’d been greedy in the attempt to lock his foot into her hilt and burn through his shields like that.

She heard footsteps behind her, and knew Tenisent had completed his synthesis of the new data, a ping sharing her his estimations of To’Avalis’s full abilities. The training program included far too many allowances and outright guesses from Tenisent at the enemy’s abilities. But it was something to train against.

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She nodded her thanks at him as he stood next to her. “Your advice on using my feathertips to disrupt his whip was effective. I believe there is a possible path to defeating him using that in combination with your prior recommendations of bringing multiple spare swords.”

The enemy was disturbingly effective at ripping her swords out of her hands. Those links seemed outright designed to draw a stab into their center, and then cut through the blade or pin it. It had caused her death at least three times in various ways.

Or perhaps she wanted spare blades that she was willing to see broken down in a fight instead of her personal ones.

Tenisent gave her a measured look, then back out, past the cave where the rest of the Winterscar knights remained on guard. His eyes flashed as he received updates from each knight’s armors, and nodded back at her once he was certain nothing had changed outside. “Your wings are swords of their own. Cut finger holes into them for a grip. True swords with a hilt are wasted on a weapon like his.”

“But that would mangle the appearance of my wings. I like them far too much for that.” She said, frowning deeply at the thought. Tenisent always sought to optimize any combat shortcuts, and having all her wings be spare occult blades to swing and use was of course something he’d suggest. That human had been annoyingly persistent in demanding changes from her. They were already lined with the occult edges, she didn’t need to make them all look like swords instead of wings. That would defeat their presentation.

“Stop pouting.” He said, “My advice might save your life someday.”

“Your advice defeats their visual appeal.” What she actually meant is that she’d rather die than not look her best. Some standards existed for a reason, even if the old human here was too dense to understand. But of course, that would be silly to say out loud.

He sighed, already well aware of the tone To’Wrathh could take when she was ready to dig her heels into something. He's been through enough arguments over fish and food with her. “Do as you please. If you die, it will be on your head.”

She smiled. That was as close to complete agreement as was possible for Tenisent. It seems perhaps he did understand that her image was equally important in a fight. Killing To’Avalis while flicking her wings with disdain as she turned to walk away from his dying corpse needed every calculated angle and shape to be perfect, else the entire fight would have been for nothing.

She walked fully out of the cavern, taking a few jumps between the rocks until her heels landed on the rough dirt. The Winterscar knights gave her a salute before returning to their interests, either eating or looting.

The Deathless had been beaten back, armors had been collected and distributed back to her people to be used or held for ransom. Lionheart’s funds could only go so far, and buying new armor for that many Deathless, wherever they respawned at, was a tall order. They wouldn’t be back for quite some time.

They even took all their camp rations, leaving a small feast for the Winterscars. The tiny camp circled around one of the large floating pillars of glass, under which the mist at their base would lead into the next strata, where the slow moving mite starfish teleport was migrating.

“Do we know how he sealed off all the ports?” Tenisent asked as they both walked to the edge of the mist beyond.

“That final bout was too close to his delta command and control systems, which I’d been using up to now.” To’Wrathh said. “He could access the use history and from there spot the rest of the viral doorways.”

“The others?”

She raised a hand out, and tapped on finger. “To’Sefit remains infected, the virus was successful in burrowing deep down in the cracks you found. Three out of seven existed in her shell, the other exploits either don’t exist or moved around over time.” She tapped the next finger on her hand. “Nothing has worked with To’Orda, that one must not have touched the infected file at all.”

Of the two Feathers, To’Wrathh had expected To’Orda to have been the most simple minded one to fool. Instead, he’d been the only one of the two that had wisely avoided it all.

Was it intuition? To’Orda was a far older Feather than To’Sefit. His kind was part of the fifth generation, as far as she’d read on his file. Several centuries older. Feathers that survived that long were all veterans like To’Aacar had been, survivors who lived for a reason.

Or he could have found a hole and hid there sleeping for all those centuries.

“Odd that four of the exploits didn’t exist.” Tenisent muttered, contemplating the security breach they’d found.

“Not so.” To’Wrathh dropped her count and began to preen through her wings, making sure they were well maintained for the flight ahead of her. “Feathers have a standard template, but often our actions and growth will warp that template. It’s possible her own neuromorphic mind shifted the exploit locations from where they exist in our shells. She may even have accidentally overwritten the locations with some upgrades at some point, never realizing the empty space she built her systems on had actually been in use. And To’Avalis’s shell is near my generation, it makes sense the exploits you found could also be found in my own shell.”

He hummed again. “My advantage as an outsider doesn’t mean I’ve found all the weaknesses within a shell. There may be more exploits. And I am no scholar, girl. You will have to figure the rest from here. My only advice is to lay low until you need it. Else they might find them.”

“If they were intentionally created as you suggested, it may be that they will never be able to find them even after being used.” To’Wrathh said. “I wasn’t able to see them until you pointed them out.”

“You only had a few hours to search for them. Give yourself a few days, and I am certain you will find all the exploits hiding within your shell. Knowing they exist would be enough.”

She wasn’t quite certain about that. The exploits Tenisent had found within his shell’s chassis had indeed felt too… deliberate. Directly in locations she’d never even considered to look into. Tenisent had found no signs of modification or tampering by the original owner, so it was equally likely To’Avalis never knew about his own backdoors in all the time he was using his body.

She was certain these were zero day exploits deliberately set down by either Relinquished or Abdication when he’d forged the second generation templates. A means to control any future rebels even if they’d found a way to sever themselves from Mother.

Such backdoor exploits would by their nature be built to be obfuscated from the host’s detection.

The pale lady had clearly laid so many redundancies, it may explain why she feared no true rebellion from the current Feathers at all.

“There are many system locations you were not aware of.” Tenisent said. “My advantage as an outsider doesn’t mean I’ve found all the weaknesses within a shell. There may be more exploits. Do not stop searching within.”

“I will certainly have more than enough time to do so on my way down.” She said. “You worry about the events here.”

Behind her, Yrob approached, holding a plate before him. The machine moved delicately on two feet, something his kind were not quite suited to do. The long loping arms seemed almost comically huge compared to the small plate of food he carried before him.

“I cook. Goodbye meal. Please try.” He said reaching her side.

Fried egg, yolk separated prior to the cooking process and later put back on the grilled egg white. Some spices pilfered from the Deathless supplies, and some kind of thicker sauce likely made from the same source of ingredients.

She gave it a test, making sure not to eat the plate it had been carried with. Then shared the data back to him so the machine could sample his own food one more time.

He hummed in appreciation. “Salt.” He finally said. “Always mess up salt.”

“I found it quite tasty. A good meal before I go.” She said, patting his side.

Calculations hit fifty percent. A few dozen paths were trimmed out as suboptimal, and the fastest path had just crossed into the teleportation strata. From there, the program was calculating which known jump points to take.

Lejis and Fido came up to her next. The priest seemed to know she was about to embark on a journey. He simply watched her from the top of the drake with silence.

“You did well in guiding my people.” To’Wrathh said, as her program reached seventy five percent completion. “I am grateful.”

He shook his head. “I heard many tales about you, my lady. They all sounded so much what I had always hoped for since the day I became Chosen, I believed it would only amount to wishful thinking. Too good to be true. Or if you were as kind as they all said, it was simply for a pragmatic sake. I could work around that, of course. Only when I saw true cooperation between machines and ourselves did I dare think tales of you were, perhaps, not exaggerated. You truly do care for the people you ruled over.”

“Why would I not?” She asked, confused. “Of course I would care for the people I command, they are mine.”

A dark, rumbling chuckle came out across the small gathering, coming deep from Fido’s throat.

Lejis shook his head with a wry smile. “Tamery was more right about you than I could have ever imagined. I suppose when even a cynical career crook like Marsella says you are worth following for your character, it serves as a testament. I will do my best to continue to guide people forward while you are gone, please consider ways to return to us once you are free.”

“I worry about bringing unwanted attention.” She said. “However, if I can discover a good way to hide from mother’s watchful eyes, I will make the attempt.”

She considered it could be possible. Appearing human in almost every regard and using an armor to hide from any scans would let her slip away from detection easily enough. Feathers would never think she could pretend to be a human and hide among their numbers, the idea of that would be so ludicrous, it was more akin to a blind spot among them.

Only To’Avalis, To’Sefit and To’Orda would have known her long enough to suspect such a thing from her. Once they were removed, she had far more options available.

All that would be left was to pay back her debt to the mites, and then she could return and live where she belonged.

The program hit one hundred percent. She was ready for the long trip.

To’Wrathh walked to the edge of the mist. Under her would be the pathway to the next strata. And further off was the underpassage she’d used to get to the next one. Her path was nearly plotted to completion, down to where she would resupply on power cells and machine volunteers who’d meet her at different locations to supply her with such things.

Tenisent walked up to her, looking down past the mist.

“You need the occult.” He said, “To defeat Avalis, martial might and your wings are not enough. His technique is far too absurd. I’ve attempted the simulations, even I cannot reliably defeat him with only blade and hand. The occult is the advantage you need.”

“His technique is interesting.” She said. “If I have a chance, I would like to steal his weapon and how he uses it. The idea of wielding a legendary weapon pilfered from my enemy is quite appealing to me.”

He gave a flicker of a smile, which he forced down immediately after. “You’ve spent too much time around my son.”

“If the occult is the edge I need, then I will want his council on such matters. He is our expert. He has excellent ideas. And I intend to spend more time around him until I have stolen the rest.”

He shook his head at that, then sighed. “Is there no means to persuade you differently from this?”

“None.” She said, and now her voice was ice cold. “I am faster than you and connected to the machine network, which will let me plot a path faster. You will only slow me down, even with your shell working at optimal capacity.”

“I am far better suited to fighting Avalis. You’ve already recovered enough video footage of his abilities, and he has no information yet on my own. When I fight him, he will be slain.”

“Tenisent. You offered loyalty to me as a Knight Retainer in exchange for saving Keith’s life. I am your liege by right. My orders are absolute.”

He said nothing for a moment, looking over the Winterscars. Then nodded. “They are.”

“You will honor your vow.” She ordered.

It seemed to almost pain him, but he gave a slow nod. “I will.”

“Then, once more to be certain you understand this is no throwaway command: I order you to stay here and look after the Winterscar knights and my people, until such a time that I find Keith and bring him back, or that I send orders on where to meet us.”

He sighed, closing his eyes and looking up. “Sending you out alone is a great risk.”

“Seeing Keith die is a greater risk.” She answered back. “And the distance between us will force you to train in the digital sea more. When we fight To’Avalis, I will need you, Keith, and the knights all together at your best. You might have the best chance to win against him alone, but we are Winterscars and a duel is far too fair of a fight. As Keith would say, I intend to stack the deck as much as we can, and then steal more cards until I am removed from the premise. I know better than to fight him alone. Now, give me your word that I will not have to constantly look behind my back, it has not escaped my notice you are stalling.”

This time there was no scowl or flash of anger on his features. His attempts were up, and Tenisent knew that. “I hear your orders. And I will carry them out.”

A ping appeared in her mind, thirty three possible green lines going downwards, and spreading out into veins of possible directions she could take. The fastest path would take her three days. The slowest would take her four.

She sent Tenisent her routes, and leaped off the edge, diving deep into the mist below.

When she was certain she was out of range for anyone to hear, with only the wind to whip away any words, she hissed a promise to herself. “Human, if you die to anyone else, I will bring you back to life if only to strangle you to death again for the disrespect. Don’t you dare die until I get to you.”