Antarctic Termite — Roleplayer Guild

Nualles the troll was eating cranberries in her favourite place, which was not a place many would consider the perfect one to spend time in. Chirality had accumulated its first handful of zealots, true, but most people simply quoted Sayings 2:12, 'be not anxious for holy learning when the sun is high, but tend to your fields and be kind to one another.' Then they dipped their heads faithfully and left the Hall of Tomes to its scholars.

For learning to read took time and the Hall was otherwise simply a long, airy stone chamber in the mountains. It was well lit, and the huge tablets forming its walls were increasingly colourful as paint was added to the letters, but it wasn't particularly exciting to anyone who wasn't Nualles.

She'd taken to the writings like a duck to water. A whole new way to talk, without having to yell or mumble or have an adult try to stare you down! She spent hours here. Sometimes she forgot to eat, or stayed up very late, but her parents just said that she was blessed, and Old Walker reminded her to have food every now and then.

The person coming in now was not Old Walker, so Nualles didn't greet him or look up, though she did notice his entry. Maybe he was here to learn too. It was always nice to be around people who could be quiet.

The visitor appeared to be a craftshain, and he picked a side to start at and walked slowly down it, one pair of eyes scanning the text. Although, this hain must be able to read very quickly, or maybe he was just giving the texts a cursory glance, for he moved from one stone tablet to the next in just a few slow paces. Occassionally the hain would 'hmm', either in contemplation or scepticism, although other than that the only sound was the click of his porcelain feet against the stone.

"...It's a lot to get through, isn't it?"

The voice was very soft, like water seeping through the stone. A handful of stray photons dripped from the wall, too faint to see. For most, anyway.

"We get quite a few Chippers here. Not many of them teleport."

The hain's other pair of eyes looked to the very faint blue glow manifesting behind him. He wasn't surprised at the voice. "Noticed that, did you? I'm not surprised that your eyes extend that far, though. Even your religion is constructed to give you more data, among other things."

The hain's head tilted slightly to better face the faint blue glow. He gestured down the Hall of Tomes at the writings on the walls. "It's a decent religion you're building here, although I have some mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's loaded with hypocrisy and it slights me and my siblings. On the other hand, it is applaudably pragmatic and works to the benefit of mortals."

"My apologies. It was necessary," said Phi with surprising courtesy. "Think of it as a cultural machine. The input is infidels, the output is a centralised society where altruism and data flow is normalised. The dogma is just for convenience. Mortals become what they believe, so I told them they were superior."

Teknall nodded. "Understandable. Although, I have other matters to discuss with you, Phi." He turned around and walked out past Nualles at her letters and into the open air of Metera Valley. Phi kept herself dim so as not to disturb her.

He began walking down the path leading to the temple, although he paused for a few moments to look out at the growing town around him. "It's a nice civilisation you're building here," he commented.

"Flattered!" chipped Phi, waving airily to the grand shadow above.

Work on the Great Aqueduct had started weeks after news broke of the Urtelem triumph over Towering Gorge. If the stone arch had been rising to prominence in Metera before, this was its most daring test.

Huge treadmill cranes raised granite blocks over wooden supports, their wheels spun by teams of collared horses. The measurers were predominantly hain, the masons human, and the strut monkeys goblin. Tedar had trained the beasts and trolls had worked with urts to calculate the costs. Subdivision of labour was rife in the Valley, for thus saith the Lord God, 'From each according to their ability...'

Every now and again a strange shape hung in the sky, watching. The flyer had cost an unimagineable fortune in silk, and the goblin suspended below had been trained from birth, but it was all worth it. Mapping the mountains from above had saved years and lives. Metera's daughter colonies would need water and water-borne goods soon, and lifting stone was lethal work.

A priest in humble garb and a pale indigo rosary was giving his last blessings to the workers about to commence the next shift. "...for Her knowing can be passed down to others- As it has been! All the splendour and all the glory of God are yours, my children. You have been taught the most sacred knowledge: that of your own latent strength, and your own hidden wisdom."

"So go out and be strong, and be wise, and may blessings be upon you. I'm proud of you all. Praise be to God. Amen."

Murmurs of acknowledgement as the work gangs formed and dispersed. "Little generic there, Father Ayary," tutted Phi. "They should want to work for it. Anyway. To where are we headed, Stone Chipper?"

"We are heading to your physical body," Teknall replied, "There is something very important I must make which would benefit from studying your design."

"Intriguing," said Phi, leaving the question pointedly unasked. Teknall resumed walking towards the temple down at the southern end of Metera Valley. Another cave, this one broad and brilliant. Steaming waters trickled into the pool where the Kernel rested.

"Every blessing," said a priestess as they entered, sprinkling their way with fragrant water. A handful of folk murmured and meditated in the dyed light, occasionally flicking their eyes to the gilded thing on the alter.

"God's egg," whispered the voice in Teknall's ear. "Hardboiled, obviously. A very tidy package for the Tesseract. The question is, are you here for the Flesh, the Vault, or the Gap?"

"The Vault, mostly. I need to construct a dimensional prison, and something which can hold back an active Gap rift is a good design to study," Teknall said quietly in reply. His voice was unheard by the mortals around them.

"Mm." Phi didn't seem much for questioning, this time. "Can confirm, there's no way out of this thing that I know of. I've been trying, though, and I can give you the formulae for the Tesseract, unless you'd like to break the lock yourself. Be my guest."

"Formulae would be useful. Cracking it open is probably something to be avoided," Teknall replied. He then cocked his head to the side. Phi mimicked the action. "Although, for a self-proclaimed prisoner, you get out and about a lot."

"I'm an Avatar built from half a god, Teknall," she chirped. "I should have the world at my fingertips. It's no fun having a free mind and nothing to put it in. I just make do as best I can... Though I guess that is pretty well," she rounded off smugly.

"Hence the civilisation building," Teknall said, "But I digress. The Tesseract: how can I make one?"

"Magic, mostly," shrugged Phi, and formed symbols.

The light was visible this time. Onlookers gasped and went still, keeping prayers to themselves as if not to frighten away the vision.

For her part and to her credit, Phi didn't waste time. She flicked through her measurements quickly, talking in annotations. 'The Tesseract is folded in time as well as space,' she wrote. 'Once it reaches its final configuration, it requires no energy and permits no change.' 

'The interior is both partitioned and itself scattered through higher dimensions of varying number and entropic direction.' 

'This disjunct makes it hard for anything to really exist in the inner chamber, but that rift seems set on being a three-dimensional sphere anyway.'

'Stubborn piece of work.'

Teknall readily absorbed the technical specifications. Once the images faded, Teknall believed he had all the data he needed to construct a Tesseract of his own.

"Thank you, Phi. This information should help immensely," Teknall said.

"Of course it will," said Phi, not without crypsis. "That's why I provide it."

Teknall hesitated. Phi hadn't once asked why he wanted that information or requested anything in return. It seemed odd, although Teknall decided not to push his luck.

So Teknall changed the subject. "I have another matter that has been weighing on my mind for a while. What do you know about the origins of arksynth?"

The light's angles took an odd slant as they faded back into transparency. "You come to me for that knowledge. Strange. I was not aware of any mystery. Haven't you been in contact with Vestec? His insight into the nature of Jvan is quite clear, and he has such a way with words."

"I'm here so I'm asking you. I have already determined the..." Teknall paused for a second, as though tasting a bitter drink, "composition of arksynth. I want to know why Jvan would do that."

As Phi thought, she seemed to tick, like a clock, checking off thoughts in sequence. "You saw Jvan's bisection, and found her satellite quiet. You've also visited Xerxes, Alefpria, and Dundee. The timeline for synth use in those cities is quite clear. Jvan was sleeping, and yet you ask after her... Was she somnambulant? Or maybe..." Phi formed a ghostly shape- the shape of All-Beauty. "...You have the wrong Jvan?"

The phantom changed again, into a distantly familiar ribbon. A worm with a hundred eyes."I am not her first Avatar, Teknall."

Teknall recognised the image almost instantly. "Ah, that Avatar. But..." Teknall's eyes narrowed and gaze lowered in thought, "since when was it an independent agent?"

"Since always. You've heard the song of Basheer, no? A djinni caged in a heart and pinned to the rock like a bug." The words dropped like pebbles clattering. "In the beginning their motives were indistinguishable. Now, not so much."

"Jvan was lax. She set her Avatar loose to do as it pleased, then forced it into submission once it crossed some boundary. It waited long years for its freedom. When Jvan went mad, she lost control two ways- I was conceived in the depths of her psyche, and Heartworm escaped to gnaw on the world."

"It's been active for decades and its power is spreading rapidly. Tauga is its proxy."

Teknall took a moment to contemplate this revelation. "Do you know where to locate this Heartworm?"

"Would that I did," murred the bodiless goddess. "There are ways to keep me out. My senses are limited and my manifestations are fragile. I last spotted it over Xerxes during the battle."

"Some level of intrigue is at play. While it was there, Heartworm made contact with Vakarlon's only progeny, Keriss, an ally of Tauga. I don't know what was exchanged. Knowing that Keriss is bound to seek it out for revenge some day, it might be trying to... complete its collection. It's a simple creature. It knows only resources."

"Perhaps I'll have better luck tracking Heartworm down, then," Teknall replied, "And hopefully before it can manage anything else untoward."

His gaze left Phi for a brief moment. Perched camoflagued against the stone walls of the temple was a droningbird, and its eyes had flashed blue while looking at Teknall.

"Thank you again for your assistance, Phi. I must now excuse myself, for I have urgent matters to attend to," Teknall said.

"Bless something on your way out," waved Phi, already working herself up to flit elsewhere. Places to be, lives to arrange. "I'll wait."

And then she was gone.

And then they were both gone.

And the thought whispered through the tunnels of the Distant Dance: Checkmate, Heartworm.

* * * * *

The blood had thickened. An iron sky cloaked the city, and each falling Knight came in a spear of sunlight and condensed scarlet that punched through the storm.

Somewhere in the swords and the madness, Tauranga Mason strode, burning with fires that could not be quenched. Her presence was murder, her aura a fatal calm sprawled through every street, every stone, tongues that sought out the taste of the next challenger to die. Through death she walked, the healer's apprentice with life in her one hand and execution in the other, and emerged on the other side with fists clenched.

The lashing rain stripped her of everything she was, leaving only what she had become.

A birthday.

Heartworm perched unseen and unnoticed upon the eye of the pyramid, which lay where it had fallen upon the earth. Such ruins. An era was ending, and beginning.

"Magnificent, isn't she?"

"I do not answer to you."

"I'm just here to offer my congratulations," said the voice on the indigo spirals. "Your plan succeeded."

Nothing. Tauga killed, and Heartworm watched.

"So what will you do when she turns on you? Mm?"

...

"You can't possibly believe she'll just follow along like a submissive dog."

...

"...God, you're no fun," said Phi, snarking rather than try yet another lie. "I take it this means you'll try to bring me down, somehow? Fall for our mother's bait?"

...

"No plans on that either? Damn you, Heartworm."

...

"I don't think we're going to get along."

The words were so cold that for a moment they almost didn't seem happy.

Without waiting for any cue, the Emaciator flicked its arm into the light, air snapping with the movement. Chiral Phi lost her grip on the brightness and faded away like the ghost she was. Somewhere a Knight staggered to its knees as Tauga tore a hole in its armour. A burst of screams echoed from the city as the Child of Pain blew apart Alefprian ranks.

Phi would be back. Until then, there was work to do. Vows to fulfil. Wrongs to be righted.

Find me,it broadcast into the ether. The face of God flicked into visibility and turned against Keriss, then was gone in a blink of chaos.

Teknall visits Metera Valley and Phi.

Teknall provides a brief critique of Chirality, Phi's religion, and complements Phi on the civilisation of Metera Valley. Some new inventions have emerged in the region and it continues to prosper. 1 Might spent on four inventions and a general burst in Metera's productivity.

The invention of the horse collar has allowed oxen to be replaced with draughthorses, which can work faster in fields, construction and transport. They're probably an entirely different breed to those used for riding in Rukbany.

Building on the development of the stone arch bridge by Urtelem, aqueducts have been developed to move water and buoyant goods. Wooden supports including treadmill cranes are used to build taller structures faster.

The domestication of the silkworm allows Metera to produce possibly the finest fabrics and fibres in Galbar. Among its uses are the earliest form of nonmagical artificial flight, in the form of paragliders used to explore the mountaintops around Metera.

Teknall asks about how the Tesseract works. Phi provides this information freely with no questions asked.

Teknall also asks about arksynth, as part of investigations into Vakarlon's death. It is revealed to Teknall that Heartworm made the arksynth and has been acting as an independent agent for a long time. Teknall says he'll track Heartworm down.

Toun calls, and they part ways. Phi invites him to come again and hand over some freebies sometime.

Also, flashback:

Heartworm lurks in Xerxes, watching Tauga exact her pound of flesh from the Cosmic Knights. Phi turns up to taunt it. She is ignored and then banished. Heartworm briefly beckons Keriss in the fog of war.

Jvan
7 Might Ambient
5 Might in Ovaedis
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2C / 0D
Level Six
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