CH 319: In Your Head

Reid glanced around the transport platform. Some of the faces were lost in thought. Others were having the same animated, pre-battle conversations they had been just moments before. Sara had turned her attention from her father to a duo of Mantode warriors that were seemingly just a bit too excited about the fight to come.

All of that was important for a single reason - it meant he was probably the only person that had heard the voice.

He also should have been the hardest one to communicate with. Reid had targeted resistances, which should prevent that sort of thing. He'd nearly lost track of them all at this point, but he was fairly certain his achievements also lessened the effect of mental magic on him. That meant one of... well, a few things. But most likely, it meant that whatever was trying to get into Reid's mind, was doing so with something not considered an attack. He started into himself to see if he could find the telepathic connection. As soon as he did, he was going to close it. Forcibly.

"IGNORING GREETINGS IS IMPOLITE, BLIND ONE. MEETING AN INTRODUCTION WITH HOSTILITY IS WORSE."

Reid had to make sure his face wasn't frowning in the real world, and continued to search for the connection. A beast lord trying to mess with his head about politeness and hostility? Assuming this was the hive mother, it was here to kill them all, anyway. He'd even dealt with mind-affecting beast lords before. The drus had proven it was possible. This one did seem more advanced, though. Maybe even somewhat intelligent. He'd run into more than one monster with seemingly real intelligence, but none that were able to communicate - nor wanted to.

"I AM NEITHER BEAST NOR MONSTER, CHILD. I AM THE HIVE MOTHER."

Reid hadn't spoken his thoughts. He wondered if a hive mother was always capable of this level of mental skill, and he'd just gotten lucky in the warrens.

"NO. I AM NOT A HIVE MOTHER. I AM THE HIVE MOTHER."

Great. Definitely reading his thoughts. He put a little more emphasis behind them. "Get out of my head, dammit."

"I BEAR YOU NO ILL INTENT, MONTIBUS REID."

Oh. Wonderful. It could see his titles. Or his memories of his titles. Neither seemed like a good thing. He thought he was closing in on the connection, but what he'd been following seemed to dissipate into wisps of smoke. "Nyx, now would be a good time to wake up. A really, REALLY good time."

"YOUR PASSENGER AND TEACHER, SHACKLE AND ARCHITECT. SHE IS SUPPRESSED, AS IT MUST BE. SUCH IS THE ONLY WAY WE SPEAK NOW."

Reid felt his heartbeat rise. Nyx was suppressed? This entire time? She didn't feel suppressed. She felt dormant. Somehow, that was letting the hive mother see into his mind. He was not a fan of any of this. He should have been worried for himself - but that single statement ratcheted up his worry about Nyx until it was the only thing on his mind.

"QUIET, CHILD. YOUR LANGUAGE IS DIFFICULT. SHE IS SUPPRESSED, BUT NOT... HMM... NOT SUPPRESSED PAIN, BUT SUPPRESSED SLEEP. SHE SHOULD NOT RECEIVE YOUR WORRY."

Reid wanted to believe she wasn't in pain. That made him focus his worry back to himself. Maybe this thing was just saying what he wanted to hear.

"IT IS ANTITHETICAL TO MY EXISTENCE AS THE HIVE MOTHER TO BEAR UNTRUTHS. I AM KNOWLEDGE, AND I SEE THROUGH THE CURTAIN."

Reid was having trouble getting a good read on the connection. Like it was moving itself every time he got close. "What the hell does that mean?"

"PLEASE CEASE YOUR ATTEMPTS TO BREAK THE CONNECTION. IT HAS BEEN LONG SINCE THIS BODY'S LAST CONVERSATION, AND I MUST BE CAREFUL WITH IT. IF I AM NOT, THE RESTRICTIONS WILL FOLLOW ME BACK."

"Back to where?"

"WHERE INDEED. WILL YOU HEAR ME, CHILD? OUR TIME CLOSES WITH YOUR MARCH."

It was trying to make something happen before the column got too close. Reid redoubled his efforts to find the connection.

"PATIENCE, BLIND ONE. PLEASE. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE NOT WALLED OFF."

Reid saw a wisp of smoke shift, and managed to wrap a bit of his own energy around it. He pulled, and started to squeeze.

"WAIT! I KNOW YOUR HIDDEN TRUTHS! I KNOW WHY YOU DREAMT OF SARA."

The safe action, and the right one, was to cut the connection. It was the most obvious thing he'd ever known.

But his eyes wandered over to Sara, on the transport, and he watched his daughter speak to the warriors beside her. He could still feel the feeble hand from that dream, and see the room. The contract he was ready to sign.

"Explain."

"A PROMISE. AN EXPLANATION FOR AN EXPLANATION. THAT IS ALL I DESIRE, BLIND ONE. LISTEN TO ME, AND I SHALL REVEAL THE TRUTH TO YOU."

He put pressure on the shifting wisp "Or, you tell me first."

"WE BOTH KNOW YOU WOULD BREAK THE CONNECTION. I MUST EXPLAIN TO BE UNDERSTOOD. THE TRUTH REQUIRES CONTEXT."

Reid relaxed a little, and actually 'listened' for the first time in the conversation. The Hive Mother lowered her volume. Now that she wasn't shouting, she sounded much more... librarian than Nyx ever had.

"I am The Hive Mother. But I was not always. Until I reached C Grade, I was a Hive Mother. But now, I am able to commune and connect to myself once more, even through the veil. I am not here on your Earth. I am legion, and I am not here."

Reid felt his stomach turn. C-grade was going to be a rough fight. He'd done it before, but that wasn't against monsters this intelligent - nor did he have so many... less robust allies in tow. Then he wondered whether a C grade was capable of twisting his mind enough to make him listen when he should have stopped a connection.

"I do not blame you nor your allies for the fight to come. I was identified as a threat to the design, and therefore it will not leave me alive - not here. They call for my extermination because I am an ill-fitting branch on their poisoned tree. They do not want me to grow, or I would poke a larger hole in their curtain."

Reid was genuinely confused. Was this just a stall for time? "What design? Just talk plainly - stop with the metaphors."

"The metaphors are a tool to circumvent the restrictions, blind one. I have said this once already. You are in the design. I am not - only this body, and scant few others, reside within. None have achieved such alacrity as afforded by your proximity. Your suppression of the design ripples through the fabric of this place. In its wake, the needle of chance and the thread of fate are able to stitch something new. A lifeline for when it is needed most, and it will be needed if you remain on the rails you occupy. That is why you must kill this body with your own hand."

Reid tried to puzzle through the statements. Nyx had often used metaphor and representation as a way to partially skirt the restrictions that held her back from sharing information. Its mention of 'the design', after spinning it in his head a few times, seemed synonymous with what Reid had started to think of as the 'local' node of the system. That also tracked to the Hive Mother's mention of the 'design' being suppressed. It was talking about the local node of the system being under the effects of the TSIC. And that TSIC was apparently the only way the Hive Mother was able to communicate with Reid now. The rest... was oddly flowery bullshit that somehow led to this thing asking Reid to kill it himself. It made no sense.

"No, Tidecutter. It is hope and possibility, driven by the potential built within you. The paradox and your own spark may see it done. I have seen the truth from a hundred thousand eyes. When you near, my agency shall be stripped as it always is, and your allies will face the wrath of this body. You will fight a beast, not The Hive Mother. You shall not kill me, for I am legion, and I am not here."

"Wait - are you saying the system is going to stop you from controlling you own body?"

The voice sounded amused. "The design certainly will, as it does to all sufficiently powerful beings. I simply fall into the category of 'monster'. My intervention will require combat, which at least seems more mundane than the servitude the design forces upon those with soulsmithing or spacio-temporal magics. The design hates all threats, and its greed is legendary."

Nyx had also mentioned soul mages meeting ill fates often. He wasn't sure about space mages, though. He'd been on the receiving end of high-grade teleportation, which appeared to have some precedent in the cosmos. He wasn't convinced this wasn't all still an attempt at stalling for time. Then he actually thought through the thing's last sentence.

The local system did hate him. Nyx had all but confirmed it. And that... meant Reid was somehow a threat to it. He thought back to Earth, during the awakening. He'd received his shackle, Nyx, from that same system, after being labeled an outlier. Had it been seeing him as a threat the whole time? How the hell could Reid be a threat to a cosmic entity, though? He didn't find an easy answer, but the mention of greed did resonate. With the local system node suppressed, Reid was getting a truly ridiculous amount of experience. Enough that, at his current pace, he did only feel a few good years of leveling away from being a serious threat to just about any existence he could imagine. Still... that meant the local system itself was directly interfering with experience earnings, and with people.

"How can it do that?"

He could feel the warmth of a sad smile. "With a near-flawless design, and... distance. It was not always as it is now. But the veil has been drawn, and the design changed."

"The system can change?"

Something that seemed like a half-resigned sigh came through the connection next, and Reid was about to ask another question when the Hive Mother spoke.

"Time draws short, and I made a promise. This body must die by your hand - not your daughter's, as you plan. Now, your answers... The dreams, how many do you recall?"

"I only had one."

"You have had more. You remember one. These are not... dreams, as you may know them. Your... passenger cannot currently prevent her wandering consciousness from spilling into yours."

Reid definitely remembered Nyx telling him, clearly, that she wasn't actually able to read his mind or mess with it in that way. The Hive Mother had to be lying, then. Or, Nyx never brought up this possibility because she thought it was so far from probable that she didn't see the need. It... wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened. Which meant - had he seen Nyx's dreams?

"You dreamt. For her, memories. I shall not judge. But with the design suppressed, she, too, sleeps. As she does, her walls and constructs wither."

Reid tensed. Sharing a few weird dreams didn't seem like an issue. But 'constructs' sounded a whole lot like Nyx herself was in trouble. After all, wasn't she effectively a soul with a few metaphysical constructs, and the ability to manipulate them? The worry crept over him. She was in trouble, and he needed to save her.

"She shall survive. It would take her a century to fade, at the level of power you have given her," Reid didn't miss the bit of disappointment in that statement. "But you are in danger. The walls around your paradox weaken, and death creeps at your heels. Once they fail, your time on the... how did she put it... the treadmill shall resume. You will return to your intended purpose, or you will perish."

It was a terrible mix of relief and frustrated anger. The news didn't feel real - and he held onto the idea that the Hive Mother was lying to him. He had just gotten his daughter back. He was on Earth. Things were going well for him, goddamnit. They were finally going well.

"It is not the fate of the implement to be happy, unfortunate one. It is to achieve, and to be used. So will you only find peace in fulfilling your purpose."

Reid clenched both fists. "I don't understand! Just tell me what you're trying to say!"

There was a long pause - enough for a hint of his frustration to ebb away.

"I will miss this conversation. So be it. Your condition... your cancer is no accident. You were made this way, Venerable Reid. Your purpose is to rise and grow, challenge and win, and die. You will open the door to the Universe."

He felt the connection weaken, like the flow of water was being forcibly stopped near its source. He latched harder onto the connection, refusing to let it go.

"How does that make any more sense? We're IN the Universe!"

The final wisps began to fade.

"No, Reid. I am in the Universe. You are in The Cosmos. And they are not the same."