The silence that had overcome the group was only broken by the soft purring of Kibble as he nuzzled into SJ’s lap. His little head was resting on her knee, and his eyes were now closed. SJ couldn’t understand how Kibble managed to sleep at times like this; her whole foundation was shaking, and the uncertainty and lack of clarity about what she was meant to do or could do going forward were overwhelming. The gila stated that she would help or support her, and what this may mean. This ancient yet newborn being held secrets from times long since passed and an age when the world existed alone, not influenced by a system, which in the gila’s words was infantile.
The system had been around for millennia as well. From the brief conversations with Dave and understanding the history of Amathera, which dated back over 25,000 years, it could not be classified as an infant. Never mind, it also involved elements across multiple worlds, as Dave had alluded to. Earth, for a start, had to be tied in; otherwise, she could never have been reincarnated here.
Confusion reigned.
“Do you have a name?” SJ asked.
The gila again tilted its head and looked at her. Its eyes blinked as it constructed a reply. “I do not,” its eyebrows raised.
“We have to call you something?”
“Then you decide. Names aren’t something that I am used to. They seem impractical and limiting.”
It was now SJ’s time to furrow her eyebrows, almost meeting in the middle. “Impractical? Without a name, you are no one. Fas here as an example, his name he has holds renown.”
“Is Fas not his name?” the gila asked, picking up on the subtleness of SJ’s statement she hadn’t even realised she had meant.
Fas looked at SJ. “My name is Fas for short, but SJ is commenting about my trade name.”
“So you have multiple names?”
“Yes and no. SJ here is just SJ. Due to my shifting ability, which I thank you for returning, I have several names.”
“I see,” the gila nodded thoughtfully. “Then I suppose I must have a name. What name do you suggest?”
SJ sat and rubbed her brow. This serene yet powerful being, sitting in front of her, couldn’t have a plain name. It had to be something with meaning. Something not profound, but at least has a subtlety to her meaning.
Kibble opened one eye on SJ’s lap, where he had obviously been listening and let out two short chirps and a growl.
“I like it,” the gila said.
“What did he say?” SJ asked.
“You don’t understand him?”
“No, unfortunately not.”
“He said ‘truth’.”
Fas frowned as much as SJ did. “No. No, that won’t do. We can’t just call you truth.” Fas interjected.
“Although...” SJ said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
This being was almost mythical, free from the system, more so than herself and a mirror-like entity.
“How does Aletheia sound?”
The gila looked at SJ and then at Kibble. Kibble squeaked. “We like it,” the gila replied.
“Aletheia, it is then,” SJ said, smiling.
The tablet in SJ’s hand pulsed, a heat unfelt before grew under her touch, and she watched as several of the glyphs, this time, did move. The flowing text adjusted and aligning again.
“The relic approves,” Aletheia said, nodding her head.
“Now that we all have names, we should formally introduce ourselves. I’m SJ, this is Fas, and my little beastie of a companion is Kibble.”
Aletheia smiled again, her angelic features only offset by the reptilian eyes, which held a depth that none could fathom. “And I am Aletheia.”
They sat again silently for several moments until SJ noticed the cursor suddenly appear and flash in her vision. She focused on her display as it opened up, being greeted by a blank page with a blinking cursor.
It then slowly started to move.
NAME: A...l...e...t...h...e...i...a
Status: _
The cursor continued to blink after stasis for several moments before it moved again.
REGISTERING
The screen pulsed, a white noise suddenly erupting in SJ’s ears. She yelped in shock. Fas had done the same, his palms clamped over his.
Aletheia’s voice cut through the sound. “What is wrong?”
SJ hissed through gritted teeth. “The system. It is trying to process your name...”
The next sound that filled SJ’s mind was one she knew only too well.
“SJ! Can you-- Massive issues-- Entity-- Aletheia?! What?!” Dave’s voice exploded, shaking off the blasting white noise that had affected her, raw with panic.
‘Dave?’ SJ thought.
“I-- unsure what has—” Dave’s voice cut out again.
“Fas. Has it stopped for you?” SJ asked, looking at her guardian.
Fas nodded cautiously. Again, Kibble had appeared unaffected by the whole scenario, sitting serenely just blinking through his goggled eyes at SJ.
“My display is not working,” Fas said.
SJ was still unsure how the local Amathereans’ displays compared to hers. The various conversations with Cristy hadn’t shown a massive variance that she was aware of.
“Did you see the error messages?” SJ asked.
Fas frowned. “No. Mine is blank, there is no map function, nothing I can use down here.”
“I got some intermittent content,” SJ said.
Fas just nodded, not in understanding, just an acknowledgement.
As SJ sat there, more flashes and messages began to appear on her screen.
The text was almost frantic, more of a ramble than anything that made sense.
Entity: Unknown classification - Pre-System Integration
Error
Error
Dave’s voice suddenly erupted in her mind again. “What have you done?”
‘Nothing,’ SJ thought.
“This doesn—” Dave’s voice fading.
A brief pause, and then it returned.
“Local systems are overloading...”
SJ’s screen again flashed a warning red, pulsing with intention. Then it blanked out completely. Only a blank screen met her gaze.
She looked at Fas, unsure of what to say or explain what she was witnessing and whether doing so would endanger him. Aletheia sat calmly and patiently, her eyes unreadable.
Then it occurred. The blinking of an ‘A’ as she had witnessed those many months ago in the white room when she had first arrived to be assimilated into the new world. The system was rebooting.
“Can you see that?” SJ asked.
“Yes. It looks like the system is resetting. This has only ever happened once before in my lifetime. Although history states it has happened several times previously. Especially after the Scrug Wars.”
The capital ‘A’ pulsed in and out of existence, breathing slowly, before the screen again flickered and changed back to blank.
Then the cursor began to move again.
SPECIES: [CORRUPTED] True Gila | Transcendent
LEVEL: [ERROR] Unable to parse
ALIGNMENT: [ERROR] Primordial distinction
WARNING! WARNING! SYSTEM THREAT ASSESSMENT!
Lines of text appeared as code, unreadable by SJ and then finally stopped. The cursor blinked again before continuing.
--Unprecedented cascade failure!-- Entity Aletheia possesses no system integration capability
Sandbox initiated
Failure to sandbox
Primordial designation unreadable
Error
Error
And then again, the display went blank, the capital A once again pulsing as it rebooted.
“This doesn’t look good,” SJ said.
Fas just nodded, his vision focusing on his own display. “Mine appeared briefly and vanished again.”
SJ didn’t relay the messages she had seen. Fas’s world or understanding was potentially torn apart at present, and she didn’t want to add to his panic, which was now clear on his face. Amathereans lived by the system; they grew and levelled through it. Their lives were tied intrinsically to it. For the system to be struggling was as though a part of them was being removed. SJ wondered if this was a regional issue or one affecting the whole of Amathera. She didn’t understand how it operated. Were there nodes that they used for various areas, or was it all-encompassing? The panic that would have ensued on Earth if all internet and computer resources were suddenly lost would be measurable. It reminded her of an outage when a large provider lost its connectivity on Earth and the problems it caused the company trying to regain its customers’ trust afterwards. This would be even worse for Amathereans to consider; it was their life.
SJ glanced at Aletheia, who sat calmly watching the pair of them as they reacted to what was unfolding. “Did you break the system?” SJ asked.
Aletheia smiled. “No, not break. I simply exist outside of its permitted bounds.”
“But it’s trying to register you?”
“It can’t. It will never succeed. I only exist in this time because of you.”
The words hit SJ like a sledgehammer. How could she possibly be the centre of all these changes? Was the acceptance of waiving the terms and conditions such a significant step in the life of this world? The thought that all those on Amathera may suffer because of her pained her beyond belief.
“I don’t accept that I am the problem,” SJ said.
“You aren’t a problem. You are the solution. I can already see that now, but it won’t happen today, nor tomorrow, but in time you will be.”
“You are sounding as cryptic as Nexis,” SJ huffed.
“I don’t mean to be cryptic. I am unable to see the future. I do, though, know that this time was indeed pre-written. The masters say so on that relic you hold.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Why?” Aletheia said, tilting her head.
“I am just one being. Millions live across this world.”
“Yes, and how many beings does it take to effect change?” The depth of the statement again felt like a crushing weight.
SJ’s head drooped forward. “I just want to live in peace with my friends.” Her heart ached.
The ‘A’ once again stopped pulsing, and the screen went blank. SJ refocused on her display.
Code once again flooded her display, and Dave’s voice cut in.
“They have deployed an emergency patch. It should bring stability back. They are unable to process this being.”
‘Aletheia, you mean,’ SJ thought.
“Yes. Aletheia. This has never happened in the system’s time, and it is struggling to understand its position in things.”
‘It isn’t it, it is she. Aletheia is female.’
“Whatever she is,” Dave said, emphasising she. “She has caused chaos. I have never seen so many data streams be taken down at once.”
‘Did the whole of Amathera get reset?’
“Initially, I believe so. The most recent one was more localised to this continent.”
The word continent was bad enough, and SJ’s stomach dropped. The impact that she had triggered in so many.
‘At least you can talk now.’
“For now, I have a stable link, yes. I’m not sure how long it will remain; you should witness the panic on my side.”
‘I dread to think. What are they doing about it?’
“Hang on,” Dave said as silence again resumed.
Aletheia again broke the silence that the sudden shift in changes had left.
“Maybe I should help them.” The words were spoken quietly; there was no menace in them.
“Can you?” SJ asked.
“They are struggling to understand my being. I can see that myself, the way the mana fields are fluctuating around us.”
“Mana fields? You can see them.”
“Can’t you?” Aletheia asked.
“No. We can’t see mana fields; we can use mana, but not see them. Well, not until we turn mana into spells at least.”
“I see,” Aletheia nodded.
Aletheia closed her eyes. Her serene face was utterly free from care or emotion, as though peace enveloped her.
SJ’s display flickered briefly again, and the cursor started to move. The same message that had started to form on her display before began to change, but this time, where it had stated a warning, it was now amended.
SPECIES: [CORRUPTED] True Gila | Transcendent
LEVEL: [ERROR] Unable to parse
ALIGNMENT: [ERROR] Primordial distinction
Proposition presented - coding being confirmed
Corrections to the text started to overwrite what was on her display.
RACE: True Gila | Transcendent
LEVEL: 1
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (Primordial)
Transcendent - a transcendent does not fall within the system constraints
Neutral Primordial - a being of this alignment is not affected by anything that occurs within the system
“There,” Aletheia said. “That should stop the problems.”
Dave’s voice again boomed in SJ’s mind. “What just happened?”
‘Erm, I think Aletheia adjusted the system code...’ SJ thought.
SJ flinched as Dave's hysterical scream in her mind. “WHAT!”
‘I’m not sure, but she appears to have classified herself, allowing the system to accept her and prevent it from having any further issues.’
“Further issues? Are you kidding me? The system is going ballistic. Every adjudicator and consort is out and about checking every single pod. Not one of us is being left alone, especially me!”
‘I don’t know what else to say.’
“How can she be level 1? Her signature is beyond readable,” Dave babbled incoherently to himself as he tried to understand what had just occurred.
Fas looked at SJ. “It has stabilised. I have everything back.” Fas said with a relieved expression on his face.
“Mine seems to have calmed down now as well,” SJ replied as her main character sheet populated. “It looks like the panic is over. Thank you, Aletheia.”
Aletheia just smiled and nodded.
“So what now?” SJ asked, looking between them.
“Did you not say you have lizards that are being problematic?” Aletheia asked.
“Yes, but what can you do to help?”
“I can stop them. They will obey me.”
“You can control them?”
“I wouldn’t say control, but they definitely won’t like what I say to them when I see them. My brother remembers living here since the dawn of the system and has snacked on many lizards throughout his lifespan. I can guarantee that reminding them of what and who he was will send enough fear into them.”
Fas smiled for the first time in a long time. “We need to get you back to Killic then.”
“I will be interested to see the world of Amathera. My brother’s memories of time before are vivid, but all that he saw after the integration was the scorched land above.”
This being, sitting in front of them, had not only defied all previous existence but also taken over aspects of the system and presented itself as a level 1 being. Throughout the entire process, Kibble had sat calmly, watching it all unfold. SJ wondered how the display worked for Kibble or if it even did.
SJ climbed to her feet, her head spinning slightly as she did. “I need something to eat before we head back.”
“Let’s eat, and then we can start back. Considering the time and how long it took us to arrive, we are in no rush. We will have to wait for the best flight opportunity anyway,” Fas said.
SJ called some rations to her hand and a waterskin along with Kibbles’ bowl. After pouring him some water and breaking up some rations, she again sat before offering some to Aletheia.
Her eyes blinked as she looked at the offered rations. She held her hand out as SJ placed the bread-like rations into it. Tentatively, she drew it to her nose and sniffed. Then, with a shrug, she bit into it. After chewing it for several moments, she swallowed.
“It’s very good,” Aletheia said.
Fas snorted. “Wait until you try real food. These are only desert rations.”
Aletheia raised an eyebrow, nodding. This being may have possessed the knowledge of ancient times, but she had much to learn about Amathera beyond this cavern.
