“Can you hurry up?”
“No.”
“Something’s coming.”
“Something’s always coming. Give me that.”
Ada snatched the weapon from Isavel’s hands and briefly tapped and stroked it before handing it back.
“Fill the halls.”
“With what?”
Isavel aimed the gun at the hallway. Something sticky and solid and flaming burst out, and she almost jumped back. Whatever it was coated the entire hallway entrance in flames, and she turned and did the same to the other hall.
She shouted over the roaring fires and alarms. “Please tell me we can shut the door after we get in!”
“Of course, it’s a door. I -”
The drone hummed through the flames unbothered, and a massive blast of force cracked her shield. Isavel almost buckled under the impact, a sudden exhaustion seeping into her mind. She almost dropped the gun as she brought yet another shield to bear. When she heard the door behind her hiss and snap open, she kicked back and slammed Ada through the doorway along with her, and they both fell over under the drone’s red glare.
The door didn’t shut behind them.
Chapter 12
Ada swore as Isavel toppled onto her. The door was still open! She twisted towards the frame, extended her mind through the code on her skin, and squeezed time down to a crawl.
Okay, okay. This was going to be fine.
She inspected the code she could see, picking through the hidden layers like Cherry had shown her, and quickly found the locking mechanism. It was much easier to take control of from the inside; apparently nobody had ever thought intruders would get this far.
Isavel was still on top of her now, and Ada couldn’t shove her off in time dilation. She let time flow normally again and squirmed to get out, but Isavel slammed down shields on both arms as some giant red machine blasted them again, heat rippling past the edges of the shield. Apparently Isavel didn’t even notice she was sitting on Ada.
“Get off!”
Isavel didn’t react, though, and she looked like her arms were trembling. She was barely holding it off as things were - it might be best not to distract her.
Ada slowed time again. Okay, okay, what could she do from here?
Real-time, she reached out with her hand towards the doorframe. Slow-time, she tried reaching the coding spindles out that way, but they fell woefully short. They weren’t even as long as her own fingers.
What were the coding spindles, anyway?
She felt around in the code involved in them, the code embedded in her skin, and wondered if she could push it further somehow. She didn’t know the details of what Cherry had done to her, but she could tell the spindles were flexible. What if...?
Ada tried getting the spindles to code onto one another, and, to her great surprise, she found she was able to disconnect some with others, with a bit of force, and stretch them out further. She summoned up more of the spindles, disconnecting and reconnecting them and passing them up a chain through the air. All on her own, incredibly fast time, as the suffocating haze of red light just outside the door slowly grew brighter. She felt Isavel’s weight shift on her, very slowly, and heard the infernal whine of that machine rise in pitch. Nothing was happening, not yet, but it was close.
When her gnarly black chain of spindles reached the doorframe, sweat slowly wrung from her brow as she struggled to keep track of them all mentally, she went straight for the locking mechanism. She connected the spindles to it and, being dark code and filled with energy, they activated it. She saw the light code in the frame brighten, and slipped back into real time.
There was a sudden hiss and slam as the door bolted up from the ground and sealed itself again. Isavel awkwardly rolled off her. They were both panting, and Isavel looked at her, wide-eyed. “How did you close the door?”
“Code.”
“You couldn’t reach.”
Ada didn’t want to go into the details. She sure quite how much of herself she could safely share, so she went for snark instead. “Magic.”
She hoped that snark covered up the fact that she was almost telling the truth. Who knew any of this was possible? Ada certainly hadn’t. Isavel grinned, though, and stood up, extending a strong warrior’s arm to help her too.
Ada shook her head and clambered to her feet alone. She didn’t need help, and she didn’t want to be indebted to this strange woman who kept appearing at the oddest moments. She tried to avoid thinking of how she might be asked to pay back such a debt.
Isavel was looking at her, as though she were trying to figure her out and finding it tiring. Ada wasn’t sure she was comfortable being figured out, but the exhaustion provided an direction way to steer the interaction.
“Are you okay, Isavel? You look beat.”
Isavel looked back at the door. “Fine. It’s just... been a busy day.”
Ada nodded. It it had been busy enough for her, too, before she fell asleep and then ended up having to break in here at the last minute before the army arrived. Gods, dragons? Either way, they needed to hurry now, while the ghosts distracted the army outside. Ada didn’t want a legion of religious fanatics picking the place clean.
The distraction seemed to be working so far. Nobody else was in here, except Ada and Isavel.
Who was Isavel?
“You said we needed to find the basement.” Isavel broke an awkward silence Ada had barely noticed. “Well - is this the one?”
“Oh, yeah. There’s a stairwell back here that leads down. We’ll find the archives there.”
“Archives?”
Ada’s eyes met Isavel’s, and there was gentle consternation written in her brow. Ada didn’t want to elaborate. “Yes.”
Isavel nodded. “Okay. Lead the way.”
As they descended into the lower level, Ada subvocalized, not looking up this time. Isavel had almost caught her out on that last time.
Cherry, how are things outside?
The dragons and ghost weapon teams are performing well enough. The human army is arrayed around the facility, but they are refraining from crossing the edge of the property, or approaching the ghosts. They appear to be waiting.
Ada glanced at Isavel, this unassuming warrior. She looked worn and tired.
What can you tell me about Isavel?
Please allow me a few moments to perform a full biometric scan.
“How do you know what you’re looking for?” Ada froze up at Isavel’s sudden question. Did Isavel know it was her who had killed the mayor, and raided his archives? How could she possibly know?
“It’s just knowledge I’ve picked up. I like discovering things, and I discovered there are archives here that could help me.” And probably help Isavel, too. Whether they were helping each other was more of an open question.
Isavel nodded. “Not everyone likes to discover for its own sake. It’s admirable.”
“Not all coders would agree.”
“Why not? Do they think you’re a heretic?”
Ada stumbled over herself as they turned a corner. That word. How could Isavel choose the word heretic if she didn’t already know?
This time Isavel caught Ada in her stumble, without giving her a chance to weasel out, and straightened her up. She was strong; of course she was. Ada had noticed it writ in her posture and her shoulders the first time they had met, and every time since. She was a warrior - at the very least, but Ada was starting to have other suspicions.
She tried to quip away the nervousness. “See, this is why I can’t dance. I’m clumsy. And I’ve... lost touch with those coders, so I don’t know what they think anymore. Good thing you ran into me, though, or we’d both have a mess of a time in here.”
Isavel smiled. “The gods must want us to succeed.”
Ada chuckled. Now that was quite a question. “I sure hope they do.”
Cherry’s voice suddenly sounded in her mind. Ada, I cannot tell you much about Isavel that would interest you. She is a healthy h
uman woman, around twenty years old, currently experiencing emotional stress and moderate exhaustion, along with an accelerated heart rate. The most unusual thing about her is that her… gift readings are unusually strong.
Ada’s eyes flicked over to Isavel as they headed down that last hall. How so?
It appears there are several types of gift within her body beyond what one might expect, and they are locked in an intense immune response state in an attempt to eliminate one another other. Unsuccessfully. They are in a strongly stable equilibrium, in fact, which may give her multiple enhanced abilities. Besides this, though, I detect nothing unusual about her.
That sounded pretty damned unusual already. So unusual that Isavel might well be the White Witch the dragons were so afraid of.
Which meant… well. Time for that later.
They stepped through a doorway onto a gridded metal platform hanging high above a room containing a vast screen and a complex array of ancient machinery. As she walked through the doorway, her anxious attempts to piece together the Isavel puzzle gave way to a more immediate concern. “This is it! The archive.”
“And what do you hope to discover here?” Isavel asked.
Ada shrugged. “Information. The location of the place we’re looking for.”
She watched Isavel’s face to see if there was any reaction, but Isavel just nodded, a stoic and determined expression sanded down with weariness.
They descended the stairs, and things started lighting up.
“Welcome.” A male-sounding voice spoke in the ancient dialect. “What can I do for you today?”
They both stood still, and glanced at each other.
“You’re not going to ask us for our security clearance?” Ada asked, but the machine didn’t respond as she had hoped.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
She repeated the question, and put on a dialect and voice she hoped would sound more ancient, more familiar to the machine. This time it responded. “No. User feedback has indicated asking for clearance at point-of-use causes friction, given the strictness of our security protocols. What can I do for you today?”
Isavel was squinting, and she cocked her head towards the screen. “Ada, you speak the language of the ancients?”
Ada tilted her head. “It’s sort of the same language, it just sounds different, with some different words and meanings. It’s not hard to pick up after a few weeks.”
“It’s confusing.”
“I can translate.” She thought out to her ship. Cherry, make sure you’re getting all this.
“No, that’s fine - translating all the time can be a hassle.” She was shaking her head, leaving Ada wondering how Isavel might know such a thing.
“Fair enough. Hey, machine, can you show me the location of the Kronos Project simulation control centre?”
The voice replied almost immediately. “Yes. Here is a map.”
A map immediately splashed across the screen, showing the coastline and dozens of names, presumably the ancient names of the cities in the area. Two large dots flashed, one white and the other blue, with an arrow pointing from one to the other.
“This is the location of the Kronos Control Center, relative to our current position. Here is an external view.”
Another image flashed across the screen, a spike of stone and snow jutting out of the forest in the background. Ada recognized the mountain, and it seemed Isavel did as well.
“That mountain’s southeast of Glass Peaks, isn’t it?” Isavel asked. “I’ve seen it. We passed it on the journey southwards.”
“I think so.” Ada eyed Isavel. Who was we ?
The machine spoke up again. “The facility is built near the mountaintop, minimizing airwave interference with the Kronos orbital, and is accessible from the northeast highway approach.”
“It’s on the northeast side of the mountain.” Ada translated. She was slowly realizing that they hadn’t explicitly discussed what they were looking for.
“That’s a fair few days’ journey.”
“Yes.” Ada knew full well that she could cross the distance in less than an hour with Cherry. “This is it, then. I think that’s all we need to know.”
“I see. Thank you for your help, Ada.” There was an edge to Isavel’s voice that made Ada’s ears heat up, as though she were being yelled at. She had done nothing wrong! But she knew Isavel wasn’t yelling, or speaking curtly. Still, there was an edge.
“And yours.” Ada sighed, and looked up to the ceiling. Cherry, what’s the fastest way back to the roof?
You will need to exit through the same basement access doorway. I can lead you to a service elevator a few halls away you can use to reach me.
Are the golems still outside the basement entrance?
Isavel bit her lip. “Ada, you’re not travelling with the army, are you?”
They are still there , Cherry confirmed. Ada’s mind was racing.
“No, I’m not.” Her eyes met Isavel’s. Cherry, can you blast them? Through the walls?
Yes. This will result in severe damage to the facility.
Do it. She had to stall for time. “You are travelling with the army, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Isavel’s tone threw Ada off. She thought it would be dangerous, but she sounded… sad. Ada sighed and opened her mouth to say something, but found she had nothing to say, so she pursed her lips and looked away.
Thunder and lightning sounded from above, a storm vibrating through the bones of the ruins and up their spines. Isavel turned to stare back the way they had come, and then to Ada again. “What was that?”
“Some help. We should go.”
Isavel nodded, and together they left the archives behind them.
When they re-opened the door, sunlight was trickling down through the layers of concrete that had been shredded by Cherry’s precise strikes. Dust, ash, and steel littered the room, as did the shattered and smoking bits of golems and drones.
Isavel looked around in surprise and shock, looking up to the sky through the collapsed floors, and Ada tried to put on a smirk. “It seems the gods are on our side.”
Isavel turned to look at her, giving her a sad smile. “So you’ve told me before. I believe it’s time we part ways.”
A pit was forming in Ada’s stomach. “Yeah. I’m sure we’ll find each other again.”
“It’s a small world, apparently.” Isavel backed off, but didn’t turned away. Not yet.
Ada knew she had to say something. If Isavel was the White Witch, then she might be able to stop the army from destroying everything Ada was working towards. Something in her was frantically trying to avoid the topic altogether, though. She couldn’t possibly talk to Isavel about this. She couldn’t dare. She had to. “It could be even smaller. If we didn’t have the afterlife.”
Isavel’s eyes widened. “But we do.”
“Sort of. It needs to be fixed.”
“Repaired.”
Isavel looked skeptical, but Ada nodded. “That’s why the ghosts are back. The afterlife is broken, and it needs to be fixed for them to stop.”
Isavel’s eyes travelled to the ground. “You should leave, Ada. Fly away, if you really can.”
Ada swayed, bit her lip. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. She turned and left.
She didn’t know if Isavel believed her, understood her, or cared. All she knew was that blood was rushing past her ears and the drums of war were pounding in her chest. The world seemed to swim around her as she went.
Cherry, where’s that stairwell?
To your right. Third door to your left.
She picked up the pace. There were no golems to cross her path. She found the stairwell, slammed the door open, and rushed up the stairs to the roof of the building. She went too fast, too suddenly, and when she reached the top her muscles suddenly started screaming and she staggered to her knees. She realized she was panting, but she wasn’t just tired. She was scared.
“I don’t want to do this.�
�� She was muttering to herself, but gusts of air answered by telling her Cherry was just in front of her, on the roof. The subtle distortion of light became obvious moments later.
Your biometrics indicate emotional distress, Ada. What is wrong?
Ada pulled herself up. “Nothing. We just need to get to that facility as soon as possible. Open up.”
Cherry’s cockpit slid open, suddenly visible in the air, and Ada hauled herself in, scrabbling for the controls. She interfaced with the ship, and it felt safe in here. She felt like she was in control again. She must be. She calmed down, taking a few deep breaths, and flew.
The dragons were firing shots into the woods surrounding the facility, and more weaponfire crisscrossed under the canopy. She gave them their signal, a blast from Cherry that immediately burst into floating red shards, and suddenly the fighting stalled, ghosts and dragons fled, and Cherry sped off to the east towards the rally point. The ghosts were listening - the Shadowslayer trusted her. Good. Things were about to get a whole lot more difficult.
Cherry kept prodding. Your brainwaves and heart rate indicate agitation, and your hormone composition is highly unusual. What did you discover?
“The face of the enemy, I think.” Ada replied aloud. The interface with the ship couldn’t completely take her away from the sense of dread she was feeling. But why? What was wrong? Isavel may be a thrice-gifted soldier of the gods, if the dragons were even telling the truth, but what did that matter? She was just another gifted peasant, wasn’t she?
Something wasn’t right about that assessment. Ada didn’t know what was going on. Her hands were shaking.
She did know that she needed to get to the mountain as soon as possible, and that she would only have a few days’ head start at best before the army arrived to destroy the control centre and end life after death.
She cruised above the treetops towards the rally point, and saw a cluster of highlighted human shapes in the area, as well as a few haulers and heavier weapons. Good. This would have to be quick.
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