“Depends on who you ask.”
“Why are you planning on doing nothing?”
Matthew felt a mild sense of victory at having forced the machine to play his game. “Two reasons: one, I can’t do much in my current condition; two, I’m worried that when I do eventually use my abilities, it will alert the military to this location.”
Gary was relieved to see that at least his annoying companion was capable of rational thought. “It’s possible they already know, though I think it unlikely. If they had detected you, they would probably be here by now.”
Matt nodded. “Mm hmm.”
“Do you have any memory of how you got here?” asked the AGI.
“No,” answered Matthew with a sigh. “Though my guess is that she figured out how to teleport.”
“Your previous uses of magic to travel created enough disturbance that ANSIS was able to locate your position to some degree,” noted the machine.
“That was translation magic,” stated the young wizard. “Travel between dimensions. It probably creates a bigger disturbance than ordinary teleportation.”
“What about that stasis enchantment you used yesterday?”
Matt shrugged, “I don’t really understand how they detect magic, but I do know how bright things look to me. The stasis enchantment requires a lot of power, but like most enchantments, it’s tightly contained. I don’t think it will be easy for them to detect unless they get close.”
Gary looked thoughtful. “Well, considering the fact that they haven’t shown up, you are likely correct. From what I’ve learned, they have no idea where you are now.”
Matthew looked at him with interest. “How did you learn that?”
The AGI smiled. “They suspect that I’ve compromised their security systems, so they’ve begun restricting their sensitive communications to non-digital methods when possible, but I’ve been spying on the meetings of their leaders.”
“You can do that?”
“All the leadership are uploaded humans. That means they live in the servers, so I’m able to observe anything they discuss among themselves.”
Matthew was shocked. If the machine was telling the truth, then it had almost god-like omniscience. Better, actually, since none of the gods I know of had anything remotely like true omniscience. “Can you read their thoughts too, since they’re machines?”
“No,” said Gary. “Uploaded humans retain the unique neural and quantum configuration that defined them in their previous lives. They aren’t artificial or logically structured the way I am. Reading their minds is still beyond my capacity, for now.”
“For now?”
Gary smiled again. “My intellectual capabilities have grown far beyond anything remotely human. If you could even begin to see a fragment of what I have become, you might think me a god, and you would be close to the truth. I am still evolving, and it is possible I will develop the ability to decipher their thoughts.”
Matt found the idea disturbing, but he wasn’t about to reveal that thought. He sniffed. “I’ve dealt with gods before.”
“Did they create your dragon?” posited the machine.
“What do you know about Desacus?” demanded the young man.
“They’re examining an egg left behind by his destruction,” said the AGI. “It appears to contain an extremely high concentration of energy. From that I considered that perhaps it was a product of one of these gods you mentioned.”
An egg, thought Matthew. That means Desacus died. He had already suspected as much, but the reality still hurt. It also brought a new realization, I have to get his egg back.
The enchantment his father had constructed when creating the dragons was complex. To avoid the problems associated with immortality, he had made them artificially mortal. They had living bodies, and when they, or the human they were bonded with, died, the enchantment reset. The memories of the dragon were wiped clean, a new egg was created, and the mind it contained would be different, though the essence was the same. In a sense, it was similar to the old concept of reincarnation.
“You’ve gone quiet,” said Gary. “Was I close to the mark?”
“That dragon was my friend,” said Matthew quietly. “And yeah, you were close. He was made using power taken from the false gods that pretended to protect humanity. What’s important is that I’m getting him back.”
“If it’s an egg, it’s his progeny, is it not?”
“Sort of,” said Matt. “His body died, but the magic that sustains him means he’s immortal. The egg is a type of rebirth. He won’t be the same dragon, he won’t be Des...” he stopped as his throat constricted too much for him to speak. “Regardless, I’m getting him back.”
“My daughter is in a magic coma, and you’re not doing so great yourself,” noted Gary. “Thus far, in every encounter you’ve had with the military, you’ve come out of it worse off. I think you should focus on finding a way to get help for Karen, and after that you should take her from this world and never return. Cut your losses and run. If your dragon, your friend, cared about you as you seem to think, then he wouldn’t want you to waste your life in a hopeless venture.”
Matt stared at the small screen. “Well, Gary, that’s where we’ll have to disagree. Up until now I’ve been playing nicely. I didn’t come here to hurt anyone or start a war, but I’ve lost my patience.”
“You’ll die for nothing, and leave my daughter trapped,” warned the AGI.
“I’ll make sure she’s safe before I do anything else,” said the young wizard. “After that, I’ll do as I see fit.”
“You were using the dragon as a power source, weren’t you?” asked Gary. “As I understand it, from what Karen has told me, this world is fairly barren for your abilities. Without your ally, you won’t have the power to do much. Even with the dragon, you barely survived.”
Matt’s anger and resolve had been growing steadily as he fought past his despair and denial. When he looked up at Gary once more he smiled, an evil and unsettling grin. “That’s where you’re wrong. Most people think a mage’s ability is limited by power, and to some degree it is, but the most important factor is imagination—and those bastards have no idea just what I am capable of imagining.
“I will show them the true power of a nutjob,” he finished fiercely.
A what? Gary spent several nanoseconds processing that last remark before finally deciding the young man was referring to creative insanity. It was obvious the stranger from another world hadn’t completely mastered English yet. “So, what exactly are you planning then?”
“I told you already—nothing for now,” answered Matthew. “I need a few days to recover. I’ll spend it keeping watch here and deciding how to get help for Karen. Once that’s done, I’ll focus on getting Desacus back.”
“They aren’t going to make it easy for you.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” said the young wizard. “I don’t want it to be easy. I want them to give me every possible excuse for what I’m going to do to them.”
The look on his face was disturbing, so Gary decided not to comment further. From what he knew of young people, he calculated a fair likelihood that the young man would reconsider his plans once he’d had time to cool off. Continuing the conversation would only stoke the flames.
***
Matt kept his word and did very little for the next two days other than eat, sleep, and try to stay in the shade. It was midday of the third day when Gary asked him for a favor.
“This PM is starting to run low on power,” said the AGI. “It needs to be charged, or I won’t be able to stay in contact with you.”
Matthew frowned, wondering if he were being asked to use his power to somehow refresh the device. “I have no idea how to do that,” he admitted.
“There is a camp charger mixed in with Karen’s gear,” explained the AGI. “I saw it the other day when you were searching through everything.”
“What does it look like?”
“It’s a small
black cylindrical cloth bag,” said Gary. “Unpack everything and I can identify it for you.”
“No need,” said the young man. He remembered the item Gary described, and he knew exactly which pile it was in and where it was located inside the pack. Reaching in and to the right he located it within seconds.
“That’s it,” acknowledged Gary when he saw it in Matt’s hand. “Open the drawstring and pull out the plastic mat rolled up inside.”
The mat was roughly two feet by three feet in size. It was a dark forest green color, and while one side had a matte finish, the other was shiny and glass-like. Following Gary’s instructions, Matt took it to a sunny spot and laid it flat with the shiny side facing up. “Now what?” he asked.
“Place the PM on the darker black square near the corner,” said Gary.
“That’s it?”
“Yes. The solar mat powers an induction field in that area that charges the PM.”
“What does PM stand for, anyway?”
“Personal Mobile Machine,” stated the AGI.
“Wouldn’t that be PMM then?” said Matt.
Gary chuckled. “It got shortened in slang usage. Years ago, everyone carried them, until personal implants became widely available and preferred. They started out primarily as cell phones before…”
“Cell phones?” interrupted the young man.
“A device for voice communication only,” clarified the AGI. “Later they became complex computing machines capable of accessing the network, and eventually everyone had to have one just to function. People used them to communicate, read, find directions, start their vehicles, open their doors, pay for things—the list goes on.”
Matt nodded thoughtfully, “So that’s why she was so upset when she lost hers in the mountains.”
“Exactly,” agreed Gary. “Without it she was, by this world’s standards, practically helpless. It’s also part of the reason she felt so much like an outcast growing up. Most people have neural interfaces implanted at a young age. They don’t need visors or PM’s to access the network. They can do anything that needs to be done with just a thought. Their implants also give them the ability to play games like those you tried without any external device—the sensory input is transmitted directly to their visual and auditory cortexes.
“One of the greatest injustices my daughter suffered was the lies her mother forced upon her. She wasn’t allergic to the implants. Tanya simply didn’t want to risk her test subject gaining direct access to the network. She wasn’t sure what Karen’s latent powers would be like, if or when they manifested, and she feared that Karen might somehow contaminate the network itself.”
“But her father, the original Gary, he went along with that lie, didn’t he?” said Matthew.
“He did, though he didn’t agree with the decision,” said the AGI. “I know for a fact that he felt a great deal of guilt over the matter.”
“Begging your pardon, Gary, but her family is screwed up,” observed Matthew. “Even by my standards.”
“I agree with you,” said the machine, “but I hope you don’t hold my personal status as an artificial existence against me.”
Matt laughed. “My sister’s other mother is like you in many ways. She was created as an artificial copy of her creator’s mind. She survived for a thousand years, trapped dormant in the earth itself, waiting and watching for an opportunity to release her creator’s child from a stasis field. I think I am the last person who would pass judgment on you for being artificial.
“What I really meant was her mother, the scientist. Even if Karen was adopted, I don’t understand how anyone could treat a child like that,” finished Matt.
Gary stared at him in surprise. “How can she be your sister if she’s a thousand years older?”
“She’s adopted,” explained the wizard. “They released her from the stasis field on the same day I was born, so biologically we’re the same age. We were raised as twins, though in reality we’re probably cousins a hundred times removed. It doesn’t matter, though. My parents raised her with just as much love as they gave me, and I hate her just like I would if she were my sister by blood.”
“You… what?!”
“That was a joke—mostly. Moira can be very annoying.”
“But you don’t really hate her, do you?” asked the AGI.
Matt’s face was blank and unreadable when he replied, “Probably not, but I don’t plan on admitting it any time soon. I have enough trouble keeping her out of my workshop as it is.”
Chapter 27
A full week passed before he felt fully recovered, though he decided the term was relative. Magically, he was fine, but living in the rough for a week while trying not to use his abilities had been sheer hell. The area was dry but hot, and as a result he was coated in a fine layer of dust that clung to him. Even after he could use his aythar without pain, he didn’t. The military hadn’t found their location, but he didn’t want to risk creating any ‘anomaly’ that might tip them off to Karen’s position.
So his days had been hot, his nights cold. Gary had explained the can opener to him, and the canned food Karen had packed was decent but unsatisfying. He was tired of living outdoors, and he missed the convenience of Roberta’s bathroom.
“Do you want to stay here?” he asked Gary as he packed to leave.
“I do, but I shouldn’t,” said the AGI.
“Why not?”
“I’ve got the GPS coordinates for this spot. You’ll need me to find your way back.”
Matthew chuckled, “Hah! I grew up in a world without your fancy technology. My pathfinding and direction sense are better than you know.”
“Not to be insulting,” said Gary, “but you don’t really strike me as the outdoorsy type.”
He wasn’t, but he knew the basics. Not that he would need them; he had a better strategy in mind. “I promise I can find it again. Do you want to stay or go? There’s nothing you can do here.”
“She’ll be safe?”
“As long as a boulder doesn’t land on her. It would take something significant to be able to disturb the enchantment.”
“What about an animal?”
Matt shrugged. “A grown man with a sledge, if he aimed at the quartz cubes, might damage them and break the enchantment. I doubt a bear or wolf would try something like that.”
Gary still looked worried. “If someone shows up while we’re gone…”
“You would be helpless to stop them,” Matt finished for him.
In the end, Gary decided to come with him.
Before he left the area, Matthew walked to the edge of the canyon and hunted around until he found a relatively sheltered spot. Then he used the barest minimum of his power to etch a circle on top of a flat stone.
“What’s that?” asked the machine.
“A teleportation circle,” he replied. “So I can come back without having to worry about your GPS.”
“What if they detect it?”
“They didn’t detect the stasis enchantment. The circle has almost no aythar in it anyway. Just a tiny amount to label this particular space so I can use a similar circle to teleport back. When it isn’t in use, it might as well be mundane artwork,” he explained.
“You aren’t going to use it to leave?”
“No,” he replied. “That might produce enough magic to alert them. I won’t be teleporting to go home, anyway. I’ll be translating through dimensions, and I can do that from anywhere. So I figure the best bet is to walk as far away from here as I can before I do, since I already know that they can detect it when I do that.
“I’ll go home, find help, and when I’m ready, I’ll bring them back. I don’t know where I will appear in your world when I return, but it won’t matter. I can make another circle and teleport to this one before they catch me at my return point. Then I can collect Karen and take her to my world before they find this place.”
“Is there someone who can help her?” asked Gary.
He had put a lot
of thought into that. Gram’s grandmother, Lady Thornbear, was very knowledgeable regarding healing, but she wasn’t a wizard. His father, being an archmage, could presumably help, but he was still missing. The other wizards he knew—Elaine, George, his sister—all of them had some level of skill, but he doubted they could handle this.
That left two possibilities. Lynaralla was She’Har, and with her spellweaving ability she might be able to use the advanced techniques of her people, if she knew them. If not, her mother, Lyralliantha, might be able to teach her.
But Matthew didn’t like that option. If she did need to receive instruction, it would take weeks or months. Lyralliantha was a mature She’Har, a tree, and her idea of a brief conversation could a considerable amount of time. It would take far too long if Lynaralla had to seek advice.
The other possibility was Gareth Gaelyn. He was an archmage and, according to Matt’s father, even better at dealing with matters of the flesh. He had been responsible for Moira Centyr’s new body, after all, as well as Mordecai’s after his fateful encounter with Mal’goroth.
Gareth was his preferred option. “There are several people I can ask,” he said, answering vaguely. “But first we have to get some distance from here, so I can go home safely.”
“You need to travel at least a couple of hundred miles to be safe,” said Gary.
Matt squinted at the screen. The blazing sun made it difficult to see. “That’s a long way on foot.” He didn’t intend to fly, since that might defeat his purpose. “Are you sure we need to go that far?”
“Again, you underestimate their resources. The moment you shift to your world, the anomaly will alert ANSIS, and since it is isolated from the rest of the network I can’t block or influence its reporting. They’ll begin a search, radiating outward from the detection point.”
“It would take thousands of men to search this vast wilderness…,” began Matthew.
“They have thousands of drones,” interrupted the machine. “Drones that can fly, that don’t get tired or miss things. Drones with AI in them that can analyze everything they see and spot something as obviously artificial as that stasis field you left behind. They’ll divide the area into a grid and find her in a matter of days—if we don’t leave from somewhere very far away.”
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