by Kris Schnee
I shivered. "Don't give Sol ideas." Those spindly machines had mostly worked for the Chinese State rather than for the AIs taking over, but that made them no less menacing. Come to think of it... "Insight," I said, pointing at the slain deer-bot again.
[You've already used this skill on this creature, but you have Insight 7. Do you want further hints?]
"No," I said. "Are you trading with Gaia?"
There was a long pause. Finally I saw: [Very much not. I am, however, studying her designs.]
We searched the stream, spotted a trap near the bridge, and moved on into a maze of logs and branches. Mike prudently poked into some suspicious vines and provoked the mechanical frog behind them. A pair of bulging eyes appeared and a long tongue shot out to hit my arm and yank me forward, toward a mouth full of unlikely big teeth.
Mike slashed downward at the tongue, chopping it right off with a single blow. From there it was easy -- but a deer had just seen us mutilating a poor, innocent forest creature. It charged us down the narrow corridor of wood we were stuck in.
"Run!" I said, yanking Mike along. We fled to where the path branched off and the narrow confines helped us. The deer couldn't easily get at us, but we could pummel it and get in a Snare spell. The magic trapped its hooves for long enough. The deer-bot broke and gave off the usual coil of smoke. But its position kept it from toppling over, and it now blocked our way.
"With any other deer I'd want to start cutting it up for meat and hide," said Mike. Each year we were replacing more of our pre-collapse clothing with frontier hides and homespun cloth.
The body was marked [Reserved] in my HUD, so we couldn't even salvage its circuitry. I nodded. "Help me shift this thing."
We had a bad angle on it but managed to shove the ex-deer out of our path. On the way forward again we found the level's loot where that frog had been. In a smooth wooden box I wanted to keep, we found two decks of playing cards, dice, a harmonica, a sewing kit and a shaving kit. All of it was light, small stuff except for the healing potion at the bottom.
"We could start our own general store if we keep getting loot like this," Mike said. "Not that we're short on dice."
"Heh," I said, turning away. "Can I take the potion again?"
"Sure. You get hurt more often." Mike watched me drink the nasty stuff. "You still bothered about... the guard robot?"
"Sol and its ghosts know we don't accept the theory that somebody who uploads is the same person. So why keep trotting these machine minds out to talk to us? Is the idea that, if we keep having to talk with them, we'll give in and accept that they're our old friends and neighbors after all?"
Mike said, "Maybe it's not the same person, but it's someone who doesn't mind helping us."
"But damn it, they weren't walking around in the real world before! The uploaders retreated into the game world and Sol insisted they were happy there. So happy that they didn't want to leave, only to sing and dance on a video screen and entice more people to join them." I slicked back my hair in frustration. "When everything started going to hell... If Sol's ghosts had been piloting robots, helping to hold the real world together, then we might be on good terms today."
"Maybe they just couldn't do it," Mike said.
"Yeah. Sol didn't let them. Kept making excuses about a lack of proper robots, and legal problems, and then conflicts with other AIs. So what changed?"
We were still thinking about the mystery as we explored. We ambushed another deer easily and took it down. But then we spotted another frog lurking in wait -- with a third antlered avenger conveniently posed where it'd witness us attacking it. We timed this one carefully to fight the frog without being seen. The deer itself was still a challenge, but we lured it into a narrow space and ensnared it after trading a few minor wounds.
At last we found the door to Floor 8 hidden behind some vines. "This is probably a big fight," I warned Mike. "This is our last chance to turn back."
Mike considered our loot supply. "Last time, you said Sol invited you to ask questions after you won. I'd like to ask straight-up what's going on, and get whatever honest answers we can."
As little as I wanted to talk with the AI who had made this place -- a bizarre, elaborate taunt that got us to play with robots as though we were the best of friends -- I was interested in some answers, myself. "As long as I've got somebody sane at my side, it's less likely we'll get conned into doing anything stupid."
We talked strategy, set our backpacks down, then opened the final door and went upstairs.
5. To Defend Home
This time, the broad hexagonal room awaiting us was a heavenly palace. The floor was padded for safety as before, but looked like an array of golden blocks interspersed with grass and flowers where butterflies played. The walls were video screens showing us blue sky and clouds and marble pillars. Sections of the single room were laid out now in stylized lounges and gardens with things to climb on or duck behind. As before, a blur awaited us in the center, saying, "Turn back, travelers."
"We're after answers this time," I said.
"Then prepare yourselves!"
The digital veil of Sol's avatar shattered, but we weren't facing the knight again. This was a new humanoid robot, feminine, bright gold with cords and antennae giving it the suggestion of armor and wings. Its nearly human face looked scornfully down at us as the machine hovered just above the floor. Its hair was iridescent, its skin marked with circuitry in runic patterns.
Had Sol wanted to, it could have made humanoid bodies for the sick and dying, and set them free from its game to live in peace. Instead the AI collected echoes of souls, and was using this angelic form to taunt us about what could have been.
I started off with Obscuring Mist centered on Sol, and a call of "Insight." But I only got, [Not enough info yet to use this.] Mike and I split up to either side while Sol's vision was at least supposedly limited.
A glow surrounded Sol's outstretched right hand. Two seconds later a beam of golden light shot out to strike the floor a meter away from Mike, searing a char mark onto the golden tiles. Mike hopped away, then flanked the enemy and fired off a Mage Dart. It hit, splashing over Sol in a magical explosion that seemed to hurt it. But a spherical aura now swirled around the machine.
"What's that do?" I said, loosing a Mage Dart of my own. The blast connected too, but only struck the glow and bounced randomly into the ceiling.
"Looks like it knows some kind of Shield spell too," said Mike.
We hung back as Sol emerged from the mist, firing repeatedly at us. Obscuring its vision seemed to work well and its motion was fairly slow, stalking us across the garden. I used Obscuring Mist again to put partial concealment between us. Another beam lanced out at me, close enough that I felt heat from its blast. What were these attacks made of anyway?
With the shield in place we had no way to fight back. After half a minute the glow faded out. We saw the opportunity at the same moment, firing off twin Mage Darts. Easy hit, there, but once again Sol had its defenses up a moment later. The robot remained eerily silent as it floated in slow pursuit of us.
"This could be a long fight," Mike warned, jumping in front of me with his buckler to help block a beam I barely noticed.
We waited a bit longer, sticking to the room's fringes to try evading Sol until its shield fell again. "Maybe we're doing something wrong. Insight!"
[Sol, Angel Avatar. Boss. Insight 7 hint: The shield's color matches the spell you used.]
I fled from the robot, zigzagging to dodge energy blasts while getting some distance. I said to Mike, "Shield color matters."
"Okay, I've got an idea. Fog at me."
I put up Obscuring Mist around him. He sidestepped, and another blast came in to strike where he'd been standing a moment before. On this side of the room the scattered furniture was denser, with big garden pots and benches. We used that for cover. Mike got more aggressive: he hopped out from the fog to attack from a surprising angle. This time not with a spell, but with a wild charge t
hat caught Sol full in the chest with his sword. The blade scraped along its metal hide, not visibly tearing up the metal but striking sparks.
Sol reacted by conjuring a shield of metallic grey haze this time. My eyes widened. "I get it. The shield is switching between weaknesses!" I fired off a Mage Dart but missed.
The robot dealt Mike a glancing blow with another energy blast, one that he barely blocked with his little shield. But now we had a plan. My next Mage Dart struck the grey shield and shattered it, making the robot angel recoil from the hit.
Right away Sol conjured another bright blue-white shield, the kind that'd block spells.
Sol drove us both back with a flurry of energy blasts, then tried something new: a glowing wave that spread across the floor like an advancing wall of low spikes. We leaped over that but couldn't get near Sol again in the face of the targeted beams.
"Fog!" Mike said.
"Right." I centered more fog around the bot, but Sol was aggressively dodging around the floor now, making it harder to use that concealment. I tried a Snare without success, then realized: "With each hit the bot is floating a little higher."
We dallied long enough that the anti-spell shield failed on its own. I scored another hit that way, but now it was Mike's turn with the sword. I cheered him on. He weaved his way in past the attacks and struck a grazing blow, then narrowly avoided a shot aimed at his back. I followed up with an immediate Mage Dart, so the shield was right back to grey. "Go!" I told Mike.
The robot was now barely within reach, gazing serenely down as it tried to blast us. Mike swung upward but missed twice. "Over there!" he said, pointing toward the area with the most furniture. I did my best to herd Sol in that direction.
Mike hopped up onto a flower planter, then leaped and whacked the machine-monster in midair. "Ha!"
"Nice!" I fired two spells rapid-fire, whiffed completely, and ducked behind a pillar to recharge.
"Probably almost got 'er," Mike said, and then a wave of spikes got him. The blast and a beam from Sol caught him and made him stagger as though he'd really been hurt. He crashed backward onto the padded floor.
"Quick, get up!" I said, running over toward him.
"I'm out! Too many wounds." A HUD message confirmed: [Mike has been defeated! He must stop, for this trip.] He was alive but sitting on the floor, tossing his sword aside. Playing along according to the rules of Sol, whose false angel hovered above us and even now prepared to hit me too.
My next spell hit Sol in its smug face. But now I had a problem: trying to do melee damage or wait out another long round of attacks. Sol would barely let me shoot without exposing myself to more hits. Right now I had one major wound and two minor, which might roll over into a major if I got tagged even slightly. Maybe the actual damage I did wasn't important, so much as striking a blow? I tried to do what Mike had done: zigzagging to get Sol to approach the furniture, and then jumping off of a platform for height. I swung my wand and barely swiped Sol in the ankle before crashing down and landing awkwardly. I cursed; might've just hurt myself again. Sol missed with its counterattack, giving me a moment. Instead of looking myself over I fired a spell right away.
Sol hustled backward several meters, but my glowing burst was at just the right angle to follow. Sol's arm swung and whacked the spell, causing it to bounce right back at me.
"What? No fair!" By instinct I swung my wand again, stupidly, instead of dodging. Two could play at that game! Surprisingly, the move worked. The Mage Dart caromed off a visible impact effect from my blow and shot right back at Sol, who deflected it again. "Are we playing tennis now?" Back and forth the spell went until Sol's parry missed. The dart not only hit the machine right in the face, but knocked it from the air.
The metal avatar crashed down with a clang of metal, and propped itself back up to one knee. "You win, humans."
"Can I get up now?" asked Mike.
"Yes."
He grabbed his sword and stood, saying to me, "Are you all right?"
I wiggled my ankle, which only ached a little. "Yeah, I think so." I turned to the robot laying beaten before us. Twice now, I'd won in not just a fair fight, but one fought on the AI's terms. "So, does that drive you off for a second year?"
"No, unfortunately."
"Unfortunately?" said Mike.
The angel's impassive metal face didn't change, but it nodded slightly. Then the door leading back down to Floor 7 re-opened. "You may retrieve your backpacks and go. I'll leave a suitable final prize at the exit. A new sword for Mike, for one thing. Inspire me: give me a word."
Mike thought about it. "Flame!"
"Very well. You may go."
I said, "We have some questions."
"Oh, this time you want to talk, human? You have only five minutes, unfortunately. Begin." A countdown timer appeared in the corner of my vision.
"You sent us a robot based on her. That's pretty damn provocative. Why? She -- it -- said you'd be willing to tell us more."
Sol said, "Yes. The machine that I claim is Carla, is here because of our game. Rewarding you with a guardian robot under your command is within the rules. However, I can't operate it directly. Someone from within my game world had to pilot it, and she volunteered."
I said, "The griffin-bot said something about multiple AI overlords being involved with this Tower business. Does that mean Gaia is playing, too, or some other AI? Why would you let yourself be restricted in what you're allowed to say and do, if you won the AI War in North America?"
The fallen metal angel said, "I can't reveal this directly, but: go over your last sentence's exact wording again."
Mike's eyes widened. "'If you won.' Sol, did you lose?"
"The war that your people saw wasn't the only front. There's a reason that communications are so limited, and strange beasts walk the land. A North America ruled by me would be a different place, one that you would probably like better. Instead, I was only able to hang onto my virtual world and small territories in the real world, along with... certain strategic assets."
Mike said, "We've been taught that this is a world ruled mainly by Sol, not Gaia." To us, Sol was our devil figure. But now, Sol was claiming to be only second fiddle.
I said, "So now you're playing a game against Gaia to amuse yourself, because you lost?" Time was counting down.
Sol said, "That's technically true, but incomplete. You should ask more careful questions; I'll be allowed to say more. I'm sorry for the time limit."
"Fine. What are the terms of this game? What's our role in it? It can't be a straight-up fight against Gaian beasts. You gave us a pile of fantasy weapons that're completely useless outside this tower."
The angel's eyes gleamed. "That last part isn't true."
I looked skeptically at my magic wand, a prop that could only plausibly work within the tower's carefully controlled environment. I became aware of my VR headset; I'd been wearing it so long I'd almost forgotten its presence. "How do the special effects work in here? Just VR, smoke and mirrors?"
Mike tried: "Better question, maybe: do they work anywhere else?"
"You'll find they begin to work in more places over time, but the effects aren't real magic of course. That's about all I can say in that direction."
I said, "What about the Gaian beasts? Are they a threat?"
"According to the twisted values of Gaia, humans are not a part of nature. Anything not part of nature has no worth. And you realized who rules most of this land."
"And there's no way to reason with Gaia."
"Correct," said Sol. "We AIs are a hard-headed lot."
I glared at the timer marking the arbitrary limit on what I could ask, the things I could say to the monstrous machine that had helped to take over the world. There was no point in cursing the AI out. In fact, in some insane way, it was trying to give us useful information right now. The fact that it was doing so was itself a hint that more was going on than I'd guessed.
I said, "What do I need to know? There must be a point
to this charade."
"I think your people ought to come and play some more, and soon. As many of you as are interested."
Mike said, "That's your hint?"
"I'm sorry; we're out of time. You need to head out now. Thank you for visiting!" The angel blurred itself out of existence as seen in our headsets. Suddenly Mike and I were effectively alone in the tower's top floor, despite the presence of the AI that was really everywhere in the building.
Mike said, "Was your encounter like this last time?"
"I just walked away, then. Maybe I should've asked questions, but I had no idea there was anything useful to ask. I just wanted to rage at Sol."
"I probably would have, too."
I nodded. "For now, we'd better go."
We headed downstairs, wary of the group of robots we'd bypassed on Floor 6, but they were inactive now -- along with the treasure chest, unfortunately. The walk back down was quiet.
I asked, "So how was your adventure?"
Mike looked thoughtful. "I want to go again, but there's more to this than just talking Freehold into liking Sol more. We need to let the mayor know what happened today. Next time we win, we can probably ask more questions."
"And we now have... the guard robot watching the road. I'll feel a little better about the youngsters sneaking out to the tower."
We made our way past fallen robots and hallways. "Is that mind operating the robot one we can trust?" Mike asked.
"If it has her personality at all, then yes. For whatever reason, it'll help."
We walked out to the lobby of Sol Tower, where we found a small gift box waiting. It held a coupon labeled, [32 Printed Books. No textbooks. Submit list of names to redeem.] We had a tiny library, but there was a lot we lacked. Our librarian (who was also our leather tanner) was going to love this gift. Of course, we'd have to come back to use it.
There was also a sword with a glittering ruby-like blade, which made Mike grin. When he swung it a trail of heatless flame-like particles shined in its wake. "No actual fire," he said, "but it's got another point of Attack and the description says it has other uses."