Weapons of Mass Destruction

I’ve spent enough time in this damned tower to figure out a number of ways to temporarily take over the defensive array, especially now that Sophie has locked herself in her room and refuses to leave.

And I know I promised Izzy to wait but this is taking way too long already.

That’s why I’m standing in front of the door to her room, taking control of the web and defenses to let myself in.

The door opens, and I enter. “I know you’re personally invested in beating yourself up for allowing yourself to be tricked by that dumbass, but you promised to tell me about Blackie and about that Logic Core thing…”

My words stop there as my mind registers the sight of Sophie lying on the floor while Tess drags her along by the leg. Sophie looks… well… not great. Her hair and clothes are in a terrible state, there are big bags under her eyes, and I think I can see signs of dried blood under her nose. There’s even a bruise starting to show under one of her eyes.

Tess looks even worse. Her forearms have been deeply gouged as if by claws, bites mark her body, along with the odd bruise, peeking out from under freshly tattered clothes.

“Hey,” Tess chirps, smiling brightly. She follows my eyes to Sophie and shrugs, “Did you know that ever since she locked herself in her room a few days ago, she’s been spending more time wallowing in self-pity than actually examining the state of her mind?”

“Fuck off, Tess…” Sophie curses, her voice hoarse.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Sure, sure.” Tess smiles, her grin widening, as she waves off Sophie’s protests and continues to pull her across the floor, and Sophie, with her lack of investment in physical stats, just can’t muster an effective resistance. Even the marks she’s left on Tess are probably only there because Tess allowed it, after all, I’m sure she should be more than capable of pummeling that black-haired mind mage of ours.

“I’ll take her to bathe and get her dressed properly. Afterward, I’ll bring her to this floor’s terrace to get some fresh air. You can talk with her then.”

Both of the girls disappear around the corner, and only then does Izzy poke her head out.

“Your work?” I ask.

“I asked Tess for help,” Izzy confirms, and Noodle, currently the size of an anaconda, shrinks and rises to coil around her arm.

“Good job.”

“Even though Sophie wouldn’t say it, she…” Izzy whispers, lowering her voice conspiratorially, “She looks up to Tess quite a bit.”

“Didn’t Sophie give Tess that beautiful shiner back when we were still under the Mana Desert?”

“Yes, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

“People…”

“Yes, people!” Izzy agrees. “While you were messing with her web, she wanted to storm out of the room a few times and call you a dumb fuck, before she finally settled down and gave me a lesson on everything you did wrong.”

“I’ve heard worse.”

We step out into the hallway, the doors closing behind us as their protections flare back into activity. Together we make our way over to the terrace, where we each take a seat in one of the armchairs I stole from one of the other floors.

It’s night, so it’s cold, but Izzy doesn’t seem to mind. Her body radiates an impressive amount of heat. Even so, I take it upon myself, and place one of my thermal cubes over the small table, generating soft light and radiating a comfortable and even wave of heat.

The view from the tower so high up is beautiful, even with the state of this messed-up floor. Lights shine down below, radiating from the windows of the tower’s around us illuminating the night. There are even some twinkling from the shores of the lake. And then, as always there’s the purple nebula swirling through the sky amongst a myriad of stars.

It takes half an hour before Sophie and Tess finally join us, having both secured a change of clothes while their wounds have already begun to fade under the influence of their natural regeneration.

Tess rushes in first and takes a seat next to Izzy, which forces Sophie to sit in the remaining armchair alone.

The silence that ensues quickly grows awkward as it stretches on over the next few minutes as Sophie works up the courage to break it, “I think that fucker only managed to do three things.”

For once, Izzy doesn’t bother complaining about Sophie’s language.

Sophie raises a finger as she begins, “He planted something akin to thought anchoring. The first one was to avoid clashing with him or his forces. He did it very covertly, and my mind made up the excuses on its own. There was also an impulse to even forget that I met him. This was the riskiest one and the one I was most likely to notice. But I didn’t.”

She lifts a second finger as she continues, “The second thought anchor was a desire to control as many mind mages as possible.”

The last finger lifts, “The last one was the most open ended— a deeply ingrained desire to rely on myself, cutting myself off from the others, while focusing on maintaining things within the city. In the end, it was just a slight push in the direction he wanted.”

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As she finishes her speech, Sophie buries her head in her hands and sighs, “Without him to renew and build on them, these thought anchors should dissipate over time, removed by my natural defenses, but… if it had gone on for even a few weeks longer… he would have been able to influence me more and more without me even noticing.”

“He begged for mercy before he died. I’m pretty sure he cried as well,” I offer.

In response, Sophie looks up at me, and I return her gaze. “You fucked up,” I tell her.

“I fucked up,” she confirms.

“Really fucked up.”

“Yes, I guess I got a taste of my own medicine, didn’t I?”

“Yep, fuck mind mages. Anyway, what’s the deal with Blackie?” I ask, changing the subject, considering this topic settled.

“Nat, don’t you want to hear more about that thought anchor? You might be able to help,” Tess interrupts.

“What can I do? I’m not a mind mage, and it’s up to her to deal with that shit. If she thinks I can help, she’s free to ask anytime. So, Blackie?”

“It’s okay, Tess, I’ll deal with it on my own.”

“Don’t forget me,” Izzy reminds her.

And at that, Sophie smiles, gazing at her lovingly and nodding before turning back to me, “Blackie is all that remains of the desert Champion’s bond—a really small piece of it.”

Her shadow moves as if it’s alive and takes on a three-dimensional, amorphous shape that almost moves like water, smoke, or mist; honestly, it’s a bit hard to describe.

“A small piece escaped with us back then, and Biscuit wanted to eat it, but I made a deal with him before he did and let the bond attach itself to me. It was looking for a new master after the Champion died, and since I had [Manipulation], I was able to take it in.”

“Are you sure the Champion didn’t leave any bits of himself behind? Couldn’t it try to take over, or kill you, or something like that?” Tess interrupts.

Shaking her head, Sophie reaches toward her shadow, and it reaches back to her. “I, of course, can’t be absolutely sure, this is the Champion’s bond we’re dealing with. But I think it’s highly unlikely. Plus, it’s not very powerful without a connection to its master. I think that Champion was here because he was experimenting with creating artificial minds, and to that end, he was probably experimenting on entire cities full of people. Blackie is the result of that, an artificial mind with no emotions—a tool that grows with its master.”

“Can it think on its own?” I ask.

“It’s difficult to explain… I wouldn’t say it can think. Honestly, it reminds me more of an array that can react to specific stimuli—but taken much further. It is something akin to a collection of an immense amount of information, and behavioral patterns. A bit like a mix between a mind imprint and a program. Nat, you said Lissandra created a near-perfect copy of her mind. Well, I think that Champion was experimenting with learning how to do something similar, and his bond was just another step towards that goal.”

“But Blackie isn’t him nor does it have his memories?”

“No, but there’s a chance that in certain situations, for which I didn’t program or teach it, that it could act in accordance with the Champion’s programming, which is probably based on the way the Champion would react.”

Seemingly annoyed by the long conversation, Izzy butts in, “Blackie’s like a small pup that just happened to be raised by a bad guy. Then that bad guy died, and someone nicer took over, but that pup still has some of that bad behavior learned.”

I look at Sophie, and she hesitates a bit before sighing, “Yes. You could say that.”

A bright smile blossoms on Izzy’s face as she stands and pokes Blackie. It pulls back quickly, its reaction seeming surprised or scared, and yet completely devoid of emotion. The black shadow swirls around Sophie before reverting to its normal two-dimensional form.

“More than a living being, it’s a tool,” Sophie concludes.

“What can it do?” Knowing it belonged to a Champion, I’m curious about its capabilities.

“Currently? Not much, and it will never be quite the same as the Champion’s. It’s bonded to me now, and our bond is fairly similar to the one between Izzy and Noodle, so it will be influenced by my growth and programming. But I have learned some things from examining it; the Logic Core is one of them.”

At that, I straighten up in my armchair and listen carefully, ignoring Tess, who scoffs at my reaction. Sophie notices as well, and I see that annoying smirk twitching at the corner of her lips, but I decide to ignore that for now and listen carefully.

“I know you can ‘program’ your mana constructs a bit. To launch projectiles when something breaks a thread of mana, these orbs, and such. I also know how limited that is, and that you’ve been looking for ways to free up the bits of mental focus you have to devote to upkeep.”

“And?” I ask, fully realizing that she’s stretching things out on purpose. But those thoughts of self-pity she was having seem to have taken a backseat, so I decide to play along and let her have her fun.

“The Logic Core could be what you’re looking for; it’s the simplest version of an artificial mind. A process node programmed to kickstart specific tasks or alter behaviors based on outside information and your ‘programming.”

“I’m listening, Sophie. Please tell me more.”

Her green eyes regain a bit of that glint, “Best of all, it’s all mana-based, like a distant variation of inscriptions. Though there’s a fair chance that I’ll always be better at it because of my mind powers, but I’m sure you can imagine all the things you could do with that.”

“We’ll see just who’s better at it.” Then, even though I already have a theory, I ask, “So what ideas do you have regarding using it to manage Fracture?”

“You told me how much concentration it takes just to keep it from breaking apart and limiting your ability to use it. With some practice and experimentation, a Logic Core could handle some of the menial tasks in the future.”

I look at my waist where the shortsword is hanging and give that a moment of thought.

Something excites me even more than the prospect of wielding this damned weapon: the thought of how much I’ll learn about using the Logic Core in the process and the possibilities it will open.

Instead of storing a bunch of simple arrays in my mind and maintaining them with [Focus] for deployment, maybe I could store a few Logic Cores—if I can find a way to deploy them. I don’t expect much at the start, but at higher levels, a Logic Core might be able to operate independently of me.

I like it. I like it a lot.