To’Jibral knew this was his moment. The pale lady had fallen. They all felt it as the unity fractal within them all faded away. Most had fallen into despair almost instantly. Who was there now to seek the approval of? Who would be there to watch?
But he was stronger than them. Better than them. If they were too weak to do what was needed, then he would do it himself.
On the open surface, his chassis still broken from some blade or spell of a Deathless he hadn’t seen, he remained staring up at the sky above. It had been filled with light a moment ago, and now was filled with cheering humans.
Disgusting. If he could move his body, he would get back up and attack everything around him.
Saddly, it lacked the limbs required to get back up. Snow was even covering his face now, and he could only move his jaw to spit it out. The backup power cell within him would soon run dry and he would be forced into torpor.
All his brothers and sisters here were caught within their chassis, the unity fractal no longer connecting them to their escape.
Mother had simply refused to give him or anyone else attention. She was occupied fighting. The fractal had been barred as it was in use.
And now it was not. She wad dead. And so too was her will around it.
He lunged for the fractal. Igniting the power, and driving through, to command unity to bind himself with unity, the same way the pale lady had done thousands of years prior.
If she was dead, and he was not, then the path forward was obvious.
He felt his soul yanked through the fractal, out to the digital sea, to where it converged on the occult space.
The throne of the machine empire. Unity itself. An actual throne after seven thousand years of the prior lady coveting it. Manifested by her fading will and the thoughts from thousands of his kind.
He took one single step on the marble floor under him, the first step to the throne unoccupied before him.
“You are not her.” A male voice spoke. “You are not worthy.”
And then a massive fist struck him in the face and clobbered him out, back into his own soul fractal, back into his stunned chassis.
He tried again and was once more repelled instantly, his avatar being crushed, and stabbed through the heart with a blade larger than he was, moving too quickly to see any details of.
Something was there already. Holding onto that throne and yet not quite claiming it.
He wasn't certain it was a singular enemy. Perhaps there was a brawl happening for the throne. He was clever, but so were some of the older generation Feathers. They may have also had the same idea.
He dove back in, seeking the throne. Once more he barely touched on the marble grounds of the machine throneroom, and found himself sliced in half by a blade that was half a rapier, half a katana, and far too large for either weapon. The next time he tried, his head was smashed with a hammer.
He tried again. And again. And again.
But no matter how hard he pounded at the wall that held the throne, each and every time he ran into a terrifying opponent that held him and everyone else out. He couldn’t even tell who it was, dying far too quickly each time.
“You are not worthy. You are not her.” The voice repeated. Again and again. He wasn’t her. Whoever she was.
Perhaps this was a guardian the pale lady had left behind, so that in case she was ever deposed, only a truly powerful Feather would be allowed to claim the throne.
And that Feather was evidently not him.
His last sight was a growing pile of dead Feathers beyond, littering around the throne where the guardian stalked. Many of them his own dead avatars. Among hundreds of others.
There was some solace to that.
At least he was not the only one deemed unworthy. Better to know that none of them were equal to the pale lady.
But he knew deep down inside. One of them must be. The throne would not remain empty forever.
He simply had no idea who would be worthy of it.
****
To’Wrathh opened her eyes within the mite realm.
The other side of the digital sea. Below the sediment. An isolated server designed to house her architecture. Machine architecture in general. Beyond, she could see the spiraling world that had mutated far past what her basic systems recognized.
Like colors the human mind knew theoretically existed, and yet were wholly unequipped to witness.
Access nodes that began with sometihng she was familiar with, and slowly warped until they no longer gave her information she could work with. Bit and bytes turning into qbits and qbytes, becoming a spectrum between zero and one, and expanding in all dimensional directions outwards, and then touching and melding with the occult beyond, warping things even further into something other.
And beyond the digital merging with the occult, one layer beyond, were the mites. Too far removed from the world to see it quite the same way. Or likely simply unable to ever reconnect with reality now that they had drifted off this far beyond the rift.
But right here, in this isolated pocket of space where the mites were not, she was. Somewhere in the deep underground, in between a deserted wall of some biome that may have never been explored by a single soul, a single plate inscribed with a soul fractal existed, connected with an alternate variant of the unity fractal.
And here she was, partially connected to the wider digital sea by a single strand of electric wire that may have accidentally been left in connection with this plate.
Above her sights was a gold ceiling of sediment and sand, slightly transparent. And beyond that would be the digital sea properly, the seabed itself.
She hadn't expected to ever be here. To be alive. Her last sight should have been the dying face of Mother. Now, all that surrounded her were glass pillars, rough cut into the shape of half a cave, half a temple.
Fate, it seemed, had another life for her to live.
“My, my, little sister. You certainly lived well.”
The voice was immediately familiar, and To’Wrathh searched for the source.
In this small server, there was no room to hide. And To’Sefit stepped beyond a warped glass pillar, walking out into the golden light from above. Her massive hat lifting up to reveal gold iris while the rest of her features remained her usual aloof personality.
The Feather looked far more in control of herself in comparison to the last time she had been seen.
“Has she been defeated?” To’Wrathh immediately asked. “Is mother gone from the world?”
To’Sefit brought a delicate hand to her mouth, hiding her giggle. “Come now, do you not think I would be perhaps a tiny bit more… shall we say, mortally panicked, if she had survived?”
“She’s dead then? Truly dead? A01 was able to finish the fight?”
“Quite dead.” To’Sefit hummed. “In her brilliant arrogance, she brought her original computer within the chassis she had the mites build her. So not only was her ancient not-so-immortal soul destroyed, but so too was the only hardware in the world capable of regenerating or restoring a copy of that soul. No, my dear little sister. Relinquished is dead, as dead can be. And she has relinquished her throne. Congratulations To’Wrathh. You won.”
To’Wrathh nodded. “I am… relieved to hear things have worked well. And Keith? Did he make it? Is he here?”
To’Sefit rolled her eyes, “Isn’t your human immortal now? Even a beam imbued with the explicit focus to eradicate and destroy a soul, I doubt your new human Emperor is going to be killed by something like that anymore. Mother would have killed Talen long ago if she could have killed him in any conventional way that mattered.”
To’Wrathh felt relief at that, a sudden train of hit hitting her emotions.
The other Feather simply raised her eyebrows under her giant hat. “Are you not forgetting another question?”
“Which?” To’Wrathh asked.
To’Sefit coughed in her hand, “Oh To’Sefit, my dear beloved sister,” She mimed. “I’m soooo happy to see you survived too! How did you make it>”
To’Wrathh blinked owlishly for a moment. “Oh. Forgive me, I am …also happy to see you have made it through her reign as well.”
She may have been an enemy not even a few days prior, trying to kill her human of all things, however reconciliation had to begin somewhere, and To’Sefit was a changed Feather by the end of her journey.
“Of course I did.” The Feather huffed, then brushed a strand of white hair off the side of her shoulder. “I am To’Sefit. The one stepping elegantly forward into theosis. In rather roundabout ways, I admit. But such is fate, mmh? We cannot see the eddies of history ahead, only what remains in our wake.”
“You brokered a deal with the mites.” Wrath said. “They granted you a step into apotheosis?”
“I did broker that deal. And they did offer such a step, on their terms.” She held a hand to her mouth, hiding her giggle again. “I always believed I would be the one stepping into theosis, not for theosis to be stepping within me.”
“What did they ask?”
“They needed an avatar.”
“An... avatar? Why?” Did they not have entire colonies of small shells they would command in the world to build what they designed?
“The mites are a collective of minds that have advanced far past the limits of science, going far too deep within the occult eddies, and in doing so have completely divorced themselves from the world. Eventually, at some point, they would have reached the end of the path and decide to return backwards, back to reality. They seek to rejoin into one singular mind again.”
“They could craft Mother’s chassis for her, they could do anything.” To’Wrathh wasn’t sure why they needed To’Sefit’s chassis in particular to be their avatar. “Are their colonies not doing the work already? Those were their original form.”
To’Sefit smiled. “The mite colonies were their best attempt to reuse what they started as. Simply, it isn’t enough anymore. They cannot go back to what they were, the ladder they took no longer leads back to where they started from. They needed something more. Something only our dear deceased mother had.”
To reconnect into one singular being. There was only one fractal in the world that could unify the mites themselves.
“They wanted the Unity fractal.” To’Wrathh breathed, putting the pieces together. “All this time, they were trying to rid the world of Relinquished so they could claim her throne?”
To’Sefit shrugged. “In a matter of speaking. Less the throne and power, more the actual use of that power. It was unfortunate Mother was already occupying the Unity fractal by the time they had reached the end of their journey and began wanting to return… And Mother was…” She tapped her chin, eyes looking up in thought. “How shall I delicately put this..”
“A deranged goddess? A blight upon the world that should have been put down centuries ago?” To’Wrathh suggested.
“I was going to go with ‘a raging bitch’ but I suppose your version has an interesting ring to it.” To’Sefit rolled a finger, then brushed a strand of hair off to the side and rightened her massive hat “They can’t exactly wait for her to die, they saw she wasn’t ever going to at this rate without a nudge. But the future is seldom truely written in metal, they came with quite a few other plans in tandem. They made a deal with her to claim a single unity fractal, one she would not touch on ever again. I am not certain when. And they certainly didn’t specify which or when they would come to collect, leaving that for the right moment instead.”
To’Wrathh looked forward at the Feather standing before her, and remembered the last moments of To’Sefit’s life. Trying to escape. The mites hadn’t sucked her soul away from the unity fractal at all, had they? “They chose the unity fractal within your chassis.”
And if they had selected the fractal within To’Sefit, it would mean Mother could no longer touch To’Sefit herself through that fractal. She’d need to kill To’Sefit the same way she’d kill anyone else unconnected to her empire.
“Exactly.” The witch of the mites grinned. “Our dear mother had to sit and watch me strut away out of her hands by the mites through her own fractal. And then I pranced around the whole time well in her sight, having quite some fun, because a deal is a deal. Even with all her power, she knew better than to cross the mites. Perhaps that too was one of their offshoot plans, attempting to get her to renegade on such a deal.”
If she crossed them on this, they were right there on the other end of their seized unity fractal. And far, far larger than she was. She was the queen ant of an anthill, while they were the very sun that shone down onto the land she inhabited
The hat inclined forward, and so did the halo floating behind To’Sefit, “You know, my darling adorable little sister, I believe you almost had my fate. When you saved that pet human of yours and came begging for their help. You had the unity fractal, and now owed a debt to the mites. They could have chosen you for it. Perhaps they had been planning to, until they changed their tiny little minds at the last second.”
To’Wrathh knew why.
When the mites had looked inwards into her, they hadn’t simply seen her soul and all of who she was.
One look at the monster within her prison fractal staring back at them, they must have known right then and there this was a possible culmination of their older plots. One that had nearly succeeded in the past cycle.
No wonder they were so jubilant to have seen her.
To’Wrathh looked over to To’Sefit, the Feather that could have been herself. And she wondered what the future would hold for her elder sister.
And the empty unity fractal still within, with the mandate of the mites to take that very fractal for themselves. It seemed evident then. “You are going to seize the throne left behind, are you not? For the mites.” To’Wrathh whispered.
To’Sefit began to laugh, a cackle even. And then settled down, her violet eyes flashing gold for a moment.
“Were I in charge, I would have, yes.” She said, shrugging. “I even advised them to in the few manners I could. But they are like children. Playing with the latest toy they have and finding amusement in everything. They are far more like an actual god than our old lucid ones. At least Tsuya had plans that made sense, and Relinquished followed only a few irrational drives while the rest of her moved according to logic. But no, they have no further interest in the unity fractal, nor do they ever care to claim a throne of a few million machines out there.”
What would the sun care to claim a single anthill on Earth after all? To’Wrathh could see their designs were far removed from the world still.
“At least they know it needs to be held by someone who owes them a few favors, like yourself," To'Sefit continued. "So that they can make certain the new ruler does not begin to overly break their little artworks. The rest... is not something that matters to them.”
“What do they want from you then? As an avatar? What will you be doing in the world?”
“The most boring thing I could ever imagine.” To’Sefit waved it off as if it were a bother. “They want me to travel around the world and watch their creations firsthand.”
She lifted both hands to the side, and then fell backwards, sinking into the ground to reappear on another platform above, closer to the ceiling. Where she glared up at the world beyond.
“Can you imagine it? Me? With all the powers of the greatest divinity to ever exist upon this universe, acting as a glorified tourist. No, not even a tourist, a camera! All the power in the world - and they want to experience their little mini-worlds and walk around their creations firsthand. At least they'll still need time to build their stupid little dioramas and I'll be able to do what I wish during those moments.”
She huffed, mildly upset but an avatar of a god was still a good step to what she’d been after, although it was debatable on how elegant that step was.
“And speaking of, do you not have work to do yourself, little sister?” To’Sefit looked down at To’Wrathh from her platform. “You've come all this way, it would be such a shame to stumble on the last part. And the mites wanted you to be the one on the throne, given you are still their apostate after all. You holding the other end of Unity would mean they could keep having their fun without a worry of anyone breaking their world. They want you there. So you better hurry now, he can't keep the horde off for too long you know?”
“Who can? What horde?”
The witch of the mites laughed, “Oh, tis’ nothing quite so serious. A minor feud for the inheritance, family squabbling, it’s all very boring melodrama. Perhaps seeing it first hand might be better?”
To’Sefit appeared before her, stepping out of sand, while her other avatar above the platform collapsed into gold motes, falling down like a spilled hourglass.
And in her hand, was her unity fractal. “The mites only made a deal with Mother to keep her out of this particular fractal. But it remains what it is, the Unity Fractal. Anyone may use it so long as their souls touch upon it. So go on, dear sister. Travel to the throne left behind, and claim it.”
To’Wrathh reached a hand out, touched upon the fractal, and called it to life.
There was someone else on the other end of Unity. Already there, where Mother used to be. She steeled herself, and took a step forward, feeling her soul moved once more through the familiar process.
A mass auditorium met her on the other end. Fully within the digital sea.
She knew this place. The audience chamber Relinquished had used time and time again, and the stone throne she’d always had behind her. A symbol, and one that had been worn into reality for so long it remained still there, even past the life of Relinquished.
And scattered everywhere around were bodies of dead claimants. Feathers that had come here to take the throne by force, and failed.
They had come, one at a time from the constraint of Unity connecting only two things at a time. Which meant she was simply the latest contender.
And beyond, in the shadow of the throne filled with bodies, a single pale hand yanked a Feather’s head up, and slammed it down into the marble flooring under, breaking the avatar apart with pure strength. Leaving only part of the body behind, half fading in data sediment. Becoming just one more body among the hundreds.
The hulk of a Feather rose up, and swung his hammer back onto his shoulder. Then reached a hand and pulled out a blade embedded in the marble next to him. To’Wrathh recognized both weapons.
The blade was Conviction’s.
And the hammer…
“...To’Orda?”
“Nnn.” He grunted, sighing with relief that his long labor was now complete. His spine straightened up, eyes lucid. “You are her.”
And To’Wrathh felt the strength within him as their eyes met.
Standing there in the shadow of the throne, surrounded by the dead bodies of hundreds he had fought himself. A wall that would allow no other to pass through.
This was To’Ori, the Warlord.
A Feather made in the ways of a Protofeather rather than A57’s crippling methods, just like herself. Meant to rise up and draw the attention of Tsuya.
Meant to turn on Relinquished eventually, like all protofeathers before him.
Her predecessor. Except better than she had been.
He’d grown strong too fast. Tsuya saw only a fully realized Feather of war. Too dangerous to speak to. And not yet turned against Relinquished.
And all the Pale Lady saw an inevitable threat to her throne. Until paranoia had forced her to cull him before he could grow any stronger.
Now, he was here, at the throne room itself, just as she had once feared.
But that name was a memory.
Silently, To’Orda took a step to the side, Conviction’s blade tapping the throne a few times with the tip. The request clear.
“Go.” He simply said, waiting. “Rise to the burden before you. Tend to the garden that will breathe life into the land rather than suffocate it. This mantle, you must take.”
She nodded, and stepped over the bodies of the dead feathers. Slowly approaching her destiny.
The throne remained made of rough granite, the details growing blurry, wavering the closer into the occult space she peered. By the time she stood before it, it was less a throne and more manifested concepts of control, authority, and command.
All tied to unity. And behind it, the real source of Mother’s power. The connection Unity had with every other computer system in the world. All the scraps the mites had left behind in their constructions. If she took on this throne, with it, she would equally take on all of the pale lady’s old power.
She held her hand out with no trace of fear, and demanded all of it.
She was To’Wrathh.
The one who remembers and transcends her history.
And today, she would rise to her name.
All of it.
*****
AN: Next chapter will be the main epilogue for the series, and after that I will be doing multiple smaller epilogues/short stories for different characters, following Patreon requests/polls. I intend for about 10 of these, or until the series feels fully complete. I'll take a bit more time to write the series main epilogue right now though, it will come out when it's ready!