by Ramy Vance
The lich felt something she had not for hundreds of years—fear. It clenched her throat and soured her stomach. “How are you doing this?”
The woman didn’t answer the question. Instead, she asked, “Do you want to hold her?”
The lich opened her mouth to say no, but her hands were already outstretched toward Lily, who the woman handed over to her without hesitation.
At first Lily looked ready to cry, but the woman reassured her. “It’s okay, it’s just Mommy. An older Mommy, but that’s all. You don’t have to be scared.”
Lily stared up at the lich with her huge eyes. “An older Mommy?”
The lich took Lily and held the child close to her chest. For a second, she thought her heart was beating, but it was only the reverberation of Lily’s heartbeat against the lich’s chest. Still, this moment could have lasted forever.
The woman’s voice interrupted the lich’s bliss. “Did you finally beat death?”
The lich pressed her decomposed lips to Lily’s forehead and inhaled that sweet scent of childhood. “For myself, but I was too late for anyone else. I couldn’t save them.”
The woman folded her fingers together. Her eyes were viciously dark as she peered across the table at the lich. “Is that why you came here? To revel in your failure?”
The lich put Lily on the ground. “You should go to your dad.”
Lily waved and smiled sweetly. “Okay. I love you, old Mommy! Thanks for seeing us.” She skipped away.
The lich felt what little was left of her heart breaking. She didn’t have much time to feel anything before the woman spoke again. “I wasn’t expecting you to be…like this. So evil, but here you are. My rotting corpse staring back at me. Everyone who warned me…they were all right. There wasn’t a way to do what I wanted without losing myself.”
The table trembled as the lich pulsed with dark energy. She got to her feet, the wood of the table near her rotting. “You? You were right? You’re nothing more than a memory. I am Rasputina. You’re what I left behind. You were weak. What did all this love get you? Nothing! I could do nothing!”
“And now you’re working for Death.”
The lich stared at the woman. She didn’t understand what was being said. “Death? No, it was the Dark One. And I don’t work for him. I have my own plans.”
“What would those be?”
The lich didn’t respond. She couldn’t remember. All she knew was that the Dark One’s war had stopped interesting her. But what else had she been doing? Killing and feasting on souls. That wasn’t a plan. She must have been doing something else. It was hard, and everything felt slippery in her head.
The woman sighed and shook her head. “Death, the Dark One, the Single Blind Eye, whatever the hell he’s calling himself now—you don’t work for him? Then what are you doing?”
What am I doing? The lich’s mind turned the question over for what seemed like an eternity.
The woman smiled, and there was something vicious hidden there. “You really don’t remember, do you?”
The lich was tired of this conversation. She raised her hand, and a piece of bone shot toward her youthful doppelganger.
The woman ducked and caught the bone spear in her hand. “You’re getting agitated. Let me explain. You think you became the lich in that ceremony, don’t you? No, it was happening before. Your pursuit of knowledge instead of staying with your family was when it began. You can’t tell me you were thinking about them the entire time. The search was for you. It always was, but you can’t remember that because it’s all in here. In my safe space.”
Black tendrils burst from the ground, wrapping around the lich’s hands and feet, forcing her onto all fours like an animal.
The woman walked over to the lich, taking her time as she twirled the bone spear in her hand. “I hid a piece of myself in here. A complete version of myself before I became the pathetic, psychotic sack of shit you are. I’ve been waiting. I knew I’d eventually fulfill my goal and become something I no longer understood, and that something would have power and knowledge I could never dream of. But it would be useless, a hollow husk devoid of humanity. So, I saved all of it here.”
The lich struggled against the vines. She could feel her strength leaving her. “What the hell are you saying?”
The woman knelt before the lich. “Everything else was your memories, but not me. Not the first one. I saved this one, and you’ve been compulsively saving your memories. I’ve watched them one after the other. But I am me, and I am real. And I’m taking my body back.”
She grabbed the lich by the rotting mass of hair and her head went back, exposing her throat. The woman slit it, and black blood as thick as oil poured out as she stammered, eyes wide with shock. There was no way this was happening. It was impossible.
The woman inserted her hand into the wound, then forced her forearm in as the lich struggled, the decomposing creature’s efforts growing weaker and weaker.
Am I dying? Is this death? the lich wondered as the world around her dimmed.
Bennington had been watching the whole time. He noticed that the pool of silver beneath the lich had dried up, and the lich had stopped crying. Now she was sitting very still, staring at nothing.
“Mistress?”
Rasputina sat bolt upright, her eyes glowing a horrid, putrid green as her left eye twitched uncontrollably. Her jaw was loose and limp.
Bennington inched his way toward Rasputina. “Mistress?”
The lich fell forward, clutching her chest as she screamed, “It hurts! It hurts!”
A vibration shook the room, then another as Rasputina fell to the floor, digging at her chest. She broke through her ribcage, tearing bone out and tossing it away. Then she pulled out her heart and held it in her hand.
Rasputina’s heart pumped once and the room shook, knocking books from their shelves as she writhed on the floor, thinking, I’ve been here before. Yes, I know I have.
She tossed her heart across the room and shrieked, “You stay out of me! I don’t want you!” then collapsed, holding the open gash in her chest. “I don’t want this,” she screeched through sobs. “No!”
Bennington crouched at her side. “Mistress, how can I help?”
Rasputina looked up at her butler, the green light flickering in her eyes, her smile insane and wicked. “It’s beating, Benny. It’s beating, goddamn it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Abby had looked for Persephone as soon as she had stepped out of the portal. To be more accurate, she had been looking for anything that resembled a camp. The portal had tossed her into the middle of nowhere.
There were no noticeable landmarks, nothing for her to use to get her bearings. If there had been, it wouldn’t have mattered. Abby didn’t have any knowledge of the geography of the gnomish homeworld. “Shit, this is a nice situation to be in,” she muttered to herself.
Martin chipped in. He sounded excited or happy, which wasn’t surprising. The AI always seemed to be in his best mood when Abby was in trouble. She wasn’t sure if that was because he enjoyed seeing Abby distressed or he just liked a challenge. She liked to think it was the latter. “Yeah, it is a shit situation to be in,” Martin agreed.
“Thanks for not giving me the whole ‘Cursing is bad because you’re a kid’ lecture. Which—”
“I know, is bullshit because you’ve been teleported across the galaxy without a babysitter, and now you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere. You should try not to lean so hard on that one. It’s going to start sounding like you have a chip on your shoulder.”
Abby’s eyes magnified the area, attempting to find something in the distance worth walking toward. She’d tried to comm Persephone and Cire a couple of times but hadn’t gotten any responses. “Just for a bit. My nanobot count is low enough that I’m just little ol’ me right now. I’m assuming I’m going to need more in a bit, so don’t get too used to it.”
“Hm. That’s odd. The consciousness is still there.”
�
�How do you know?”
“I’ve been talking to it.”
Abby was surprised by Martin’s answer. She was under the impression that Martin hated the consciousness and was going to do everything in his power to keep from interacting with it.
Martin’s disembodied voice broke her train of thought. “Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. That I hate the consciousness because I’m jealous of you developing a friendship with another non-organic intelligence. I’ll have you know, my enormous processing power has allowed me to move past that and foster a healthy, slightly irritating relationship with the consciousness.”
Abby sat down as she tried to figure out what to do. “You might not want to mention the enormous processing power too often. Might sound like you have a chip on your shoulder.”
“Oh, touché. So, what’s the plan?”
Abby picked up a little bit of sand and stared as it slipped between her fingers. “I can’t get signal here. Either the gnomes are using a new encrypted signal, or they’ve lost it. Whatever channel Persephone called me on is down, so I’d say up the production of nanobots in my body to a reasonable level. That should give me enough juice to be able to search out whatever new signal they’re using and decode it. And cover my ass.”
“Sounds good to me. Juicing you up.”
Abby instantly felt the increase in nanobots. It wasn’t a physical sensation. Instead, she felt it in her head, in the way her thoughts organized themselves. The first change was the increase in random thoughts and how quickly they passed. Then those random thoughts started to grow more complex. She started building ideas from each stray thought to cross her mind. Last came the consciousness. It was like having a teacher stand over your shoulder while you worked on a test.
Martin appeared in the right-hand corner of Abby’s vision. “Nanobots are nearly as high as your regular operating function. I’d suggest taking a moment to let your body get used to everything. Take in the scenery. It’s kind of beautiful, isn’t it?”
Abby thought it was funny that Martin would be interested in beauty. “Since when did you start saying words like beautiful?”
“When I started to understand the idea better. I’ve found my comprehension of organic ideals to be a little severe. I’ve been reading books on art and philosophy. If you’re interested, I could upload them to your neural network.”
“Nah, you don’t have to do that. We still prefer to read. It is a fun activity.”
“And, back to the creepy royal pronoun.”
“It’s only appropriate. We are more than just Abby now. But we will stay and watch the sunset for a bit. It is a very beautiful day.”
Abby laid back and watched the sun slowly moving through the sky as it began its journey to dusk. “You know, when we were a kid, our father would stay up with us, watching the sunset. Dusk was his favorite time of day. Ours was sunrise. It was funny…he’d wake up every morning as soon as the sun rose and hated it, but he did it every day.”
A small, featherless bird sprinted across the sand in front of Abby. It stopped for a second and blinked. “You still miss him a lot, don’t you?” Martin asked.
“Yeah, we don’t think we’re ever going to stop missing him. How could we?”
“Looks like that orc hatred is gone at least. That’s a good thing.”
The featherless bird started running circles around Abby, who laughed when she realized what the bird was doing. “Yeah, kinda happened without realizing it, ever since we took control of that orc in the arena. And seeing the sheer number of orcs under the Dark One’s control. We can’t imagine what it would feel like to lose ourselves like that. It sounds terrible.”
“You know, I didn’t tell you this before because I guess it feels weird, but I’m proud of you. I know you hear that a lot, but probably not enough. But I am. Ever since you created me, I’ve seen you step up day after day. It’s impressive. Kinda makes me want to keep growing.”
Abby chuckled as she sat up and stared at the shadows moving across the dunes. “So, this is what happens when everyone else isn’t around? You get all emotional?”
Martin’s paperclip avatar smirked as it twirled. “I just thought you should know. Now seemed like a pretty good time. I’m trying to say I respect you.”
“Thanks, Martin. That means a lot to me.”
Abby felt a shock run up her spine. All her systems were back online. She automatically connected to the closest communication signal and decoded it, then pulled up her HUD and called Persephone. “Hey, Percy, we’re here, but not quite certain where ‘here’ is. Do you think you could send us your coordinates and a rough map of the area?”
It took a couple of seconds for Persephone to respond. “Oh, thank the gods! I thought something had happened to you when you didn’t teleport here. Hold on, let me get those coordinates and maps.”
“Yeah, apparently, the MERC’s tech or magic isn’t as precise as what we use at HQ. Even then, we weren’t even a hundred percent certain we were on the right planet until we were able to pull up your base’s signals. We should get in touch with the Red Lion about that and find a way to improve their transportation methods.”
“One thing at a time, Abby. There you go. I’ll forward them to you.”
Abby pulled up the map and the coordinates. She was still a good distance from the camp and Gate. “Looks like we’re going to have to take a little hike to get to you.”
“We could probably send out a convoy to pick you up.”
Abby watched the sky as the sun continued to make its descent. Shadows stretched across the sand. “No, we think we’d prefer to walk. It’s the first time death isn’t an immediate problem. We can’t remember the last time we went for a walk. We’ll be there in a few hours. If there are any sudden changes, let us know, okay?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Great. We’ll see you in a little bit. We’re really looking forward to it.”
“Me too.”
Abby ended the call and stood. The bird running circles around her suddenly stopped. Abby looked down at the weird creature with its segmented bug eyes. “Sorry, little fella, we gotta get going.”
Then she headed north in the direction of the camp, her shadows stretching along those of the dunes until it looked as if an ominous giant loomed across the sands.
The featherless bug-eyed bird followed Abby, occasionally running by her side and keeping pace. When Abby stopped to admire an interesting cactus, taking a photo to research later, the bird stopped as well, chirping as if it were growing impatient. When Abby began again, the bird followed.
The two walked for nearly an hour as dusk fell, Abby taking her time, watching the subtle way the color of the sand changed with the height of the sun. Finally, as the moon was rising and growing more visible, Abby stopped and sat on one of the dunes while the bird commenced running circles around her again. “That is the oddest thing we’ve ever seen a bird do,” she muttered.
Martin spoke up. “Reminds me of the way bees communicate on Earth, running or dancing in circles.”
Abby leaned forward to get a better look at the bird. “Is that what you’re doing, little guy? Trying to communicate?”
The bird stopped running and froze in place. Then it tilted its head back and screeched, a shrill, hair-raising sound.
Abby jumped to her feet, caught off-guard by the noise, but the bird did not stop.
Within seconds, the air was filled with the sound of huge, flapping wings. It reminded Abby of a flying dragon. Whatever was in the dark was big.
Abby instinctively adjusted her eyes to the dark, just in time to see a bird nearly the size of a dragon land directly over the small, screeching bird. The huge bird had the same insect eyes but was covered in multi-colored feathers. It had four wings and talons the size of a small car. “Guess that’s why you were following us.”
The giant bird scratched the sand and let out a shriek.
Nanobots flowed over Abby, covering her in armor. She
formed a plasma cannon in her hand and fired.
The bird took to the air, dodging the attack. Then it swooped in on Abby, knocking her over. It pinned her down with its talons and pecked her, and she was barely able to move her head in time to avoid being decapitated.
Martin’s voice came through, bubblier than usual. “Hey, Abby, me and the nanobots have been talking. We think you’re burning too much energy with plasma shots, and we’ve come up with a better alternative that’ll keep you from wasting energy.”
Abby struggled against the bird’s talons as she dodged another attack aimed at her head. “Could you not have thought of a better time to bring this up than right now?”
“Now that you mention it, this is a pretty bad time. If you survive this, I’ll make sure to talk to you about it.”
“Tell me how to get out of this!”
Martin popped up in the corner of Abby’s vision, visibly smirking. “Well, first off, we’ve increased your physical density and made your armor capable of expelling pent-up kinetic energy. We are calling this your charge ability. Go ahead and give it a try. Focus on an object and, you know, charge it.”
Abby didn’t quite understand what Martin was saying, but she didn’t have the time to think it through. She looked up at the giant bird and leaned toward it.
A kinetic field formed around Abby’s body, and her armor shunted energy out from around her. She hit the bird square in its chest, energy crackling as it flew backward.
Martin appeared in front of Abby again. “And that’s not all. You can also expel energy through a physical attack. Movement speed has been adjusted to help you not depend on those cannons as much. A one-trick pony is boring, you know. If this was a book, I’d be tired of reading the same thing over and over by now.”
Abby focused on the bird again and charged, leaving a trail of blue energy behind her as she hit the bird in the chest again. As the bird stumbled back, Abby leapt, kinetic energy flowing through her body, and slammed her fist into the ground.
The bird crumpled to the ground as the girl slammed her hands into a plasma cannon. She fired, and the plasma blast tore through the bird, which fell dead on the sand.