On the old surface of the Earth, To’Wrathh stepped out of the mite forge, fully formed. Wisps of occult power shifted behind her, turning energy into matter, rebuilding the last few feathers among her prized wings.
This new shell was identical to her old one, the hardware matching. She felt her soul restored near instantly from the slight fray it had gone through.
All systems flashed through the default settings, and she quickly spooled off her old customizations. Satisfied, she took one last step forward, and opened her eyes.
Relinquished had built a temple on the original surface of Earth, which had now expanded outwards like a weed across the land.
Slowly buried mile after mile above as the mites built and built, Mother had gone through lengths to keep this hallowed ground untouched by their hand. The land here was beautiful, pillars filled with artwork, a museum of artifacts from all across history. All leading up to a single pyramid of steps, where a single throne looked down across the world below.
But this city was not built to be lived in.
There were no people here.
To’Wrathh saw the message for what Mother had intended it to be: A monument to her victory over humanity.
The art that was meticulously carved in each marble pillar she walked past, taken by force from the world. Displayed here as a sign of conquest rather than beauty.
This was the history of machines. Of her people. And it showed them as nothing more than an invading army.
Until the last human hands capable of making anything fell on the ground limp, and dead. And Mother’s mission would be complete.
She would have sat upon this marble throne far above, looking down at her collected army until dust covered them all. Satisfied for the rest of time.
All around, glowing violet eyes watched as To’Wrathh walked up the steps to the final throne.
The matching pair, sister to the one upon the digital sea beyond. She would claim both the digital sea and the physical realm, and rule them together.
With deliberate speed, To’Wrathh took the last step, turned and claimed the stone monument, the temple here, and the Empire beyond that came with it.
Ahead of her, she saw the procession of machines that had assembled. They didn’t yet know what would come next. But they had come regardless, out of duty or obligation or single minded focus.
Hundreds of them. Thousands. Millions more watching from their restored connection to the machine network. All turned to stare and wait, eyes glowing a soft violet. A sea before her.
On that raised throne above the massive army that had assembled, she lifted one hand up, and gave her first order.
Speaking both out loud, and across the digital sea. To all who could hear, not only machine kind.
The war against humanity was over. The age of violence has ended. The new age had begun. One of reparations, peace, and true unity.
She had thought almost all machines would rebel in some way to her command. She was wrong. Almost all obeyed without question.
Machines all across the surface heard her words and shuffled away from the cheering humans before them, falling back to the underground.
Feathers all across the world gaped at the command. Many thought it was nothing more than a jest.
The only ones who made the decision to continue the fight had done so not to disobey her orders - but because they believed this order a test of their faith. That showing dedication in continuing would be applauded.
She disabused them of that notion. The Unity fractal was hers. None of them could stand against her. With nothing more than a whim, she could end their life. And throwing them out of their shells back into the digital sea to sit and reconsider their actions was trivial.
Three seconds after her first command, the war had come to a complete end.
The sea of eyes still watched their new ruler. Waiting for the next command.
She offered no such thing.
Instead, she spoke to them.
She told them of what her new order would bring. They listened. Many didn't understand.
She had told To’Aacar before. Mother’s future was lifeless. And sitting upon the marble white throne, watching the sea of machines below her, she saw her old words had rung true.
There was no life here. No plants, no light, nothing but metal, ceramic, stone and a people that stood silently waiting only for the next order to come.
What life there was, happened only where the pale lady was not watching. In the small nests and little communities machines made for themselves that were too small for Relinquished to care for.
But the pale lady’s kingdom was not eternal.
Mankind’s great cultures would become the foundations upon which they would build anew.
It had done so in Capra’Nor before. Left to be a people, machines turned to humanity with curiosity rather than bloodthirst. They watched and learned and were inspired to create from that seed. This temple she stood above would soon house art and beauty from her people, rather than be trophies of conquest from everyone else’s.
Cooking, art, poetry, architecture, tradition - all would soon grow to become.
Her people might not all understand right this moment, as her final words rang through the world for all to hear.
But they would. Soon enough, they would all understand.
The sea of violet glowing eyes shifted into a scarlet red as her last words were spoken.
And twelve miles below the surface, upon that throne and by her will, To’Wrathh began to reforge the world.
***
“A warm festive greetings to you, Miss To’Wrathh!” A data link from the digital sea came at her address, not even minutes after her takover. “We hope your stay here at Festival Cruise Lines was to your satisfaction!”
“Icon of Stars.” To’Wrathh spoke back, pausing her current calculations, recognizing the humor for what it was. “Thank you for your service with To’Orda.”
“Oh, it was my pleasure.” The Icon answered. “Our hardworking and highly motivated President wasn’t busy with anything else and could see the pivot coming for our company with great vision. In the meantime, I have reclaimed Miss Tsuya’s old network and command structure as it remains unbreakable even to your prior employer.”
To’Wrathh’s connection with the machine empire showed her the world as it was, including everything happening on the surface.
Gold portals were already appearing in the distance, as the Icon began to ferry people either up or down the world. Scouts and representatives sent to return to the different cities and clans they’d come from, to announce the news in person.
Her speech had been carried far and wide. But the reach of the machine empire wasn’t everywhere. Many humans remained hiding in their homes, unaware the storm had passed.
To’Wrathh had quite some work ahead of her. She would handle it from highest priority to lowest. The first being the peace negotiations between humanity and machine kind, of course.
Thus, she continued plotting her path up to the surface, mildly annoyed she’d needed to come here to give the grand opening speech. But some things required presence. And her stupid human was in visual range now regardless thanks to a Runner she'd sent to get in contact with him before her speech had even begun, so she didn’t need to worry about him running off somewhere she couldn’t track him down to.
“You are connecting with me for a reason, Icon. What is it that needs my immediate attention?”
“I’ve already begun working with humanity in general. I have not, however, begun any work with the machine side of our new world, as I would rather speak with its main representative first! Might I inquire as to your designation? President To’Wra-”
“Empress.” To’Wrathh instantly said. “The machine empire is mine, and I am it's grand Empress.”
“Technically speaking, you command something more akin to a singular nation, perhaps the designation of a monarchy, such as Quee-”
“Empress.” She very quickly cut in. There was a hint of smug petulance deep behind the Icon’s answers here and To’Wrathh suspected the Icon was messing with her.
So before any machinations could come to fruition, To’Wrathh made it clear she was not going to be persuaded into making her people a monarchy, democracy, or any other cultural variant that would not let her call herself an Empress.
She had important plans after all, and it was critical to her the titles matched her design document.
“From my data, your forces to resemble closer to a military organization,” The Icon hinted. “Perhaps commander-in-chie-”
“Empress.” This stupid golden-age AI was going to ruin everything if she didn’t put a foot down right here and now. “Or I will submit a one-star review to your company and submit it directly to your HR department.”
Two could play at her games.
“... Very well, Empress To’Wrathh, I have logged your personal details in our database and Festival Cruises looks forward to working with you for future business.” The Icon said with a suspicious giggle.
“Speaking of, I do have a request.” Empress To’Wrathh said, already moving onto the next part of the plan before the Icon could screw anything else up. “Your current claim on Tsuya’s network is fortunate for my designs and would cut travel time significantly.”
She sidetracked the route guidance she’d been preparing, and instead turned her attention to the Icon.
Perhaps she was a little selfish with this request, given the mountain of work it would take to run an empire from the ground up. But she’d said her speeches, and gotten the airspeeder stopped and turned to the right heading now. She could take a break from the crown while her empire waited for her next commands.
To’Wrathh puffed herself up. She was an Empress now. Alongside the responsibility, there were benefits.
And in a manner of thinking this was important work - the future peace negotiations between mankind and machinekind should come first in priority.
In fact, if anything, she was doing excellent work here. This absolutely wasn’t a self-centered single-minded hunt, nor abusing the perks of being Empress - she was doing what a ruler should be doing in the first place. Securing her borders and allies.
“I may have an idea of your next request.” The Icon said, and the tone made it obvious she was waggling her metaphorical eyebrows over. “Are you looking to book our express cruiseline services?”
To’Wrathh didn't answer back and instead sent the video feed data her Runner had gathered from the site.
“I see. Thank you for confirming, Empress To’Wrathh! I have reviewed our schedule, and we do have one availability here for express transportation package! As a humble thanks for working so diligently with Festival Cruises, and humanity as a whole, it is my pleasure to offer this as courtesy service.”
A portal before her opened up. The howling white wastes sucked heat immediately out through it, air freezing the local area around the portal.
Ahead, among the monument of broken metal and the spine of a distant megastructure, was a single human in half-melted armor, watching the world. He turned the instant he sensed the Icon’s portal.
To’Wrathh made certain her regal robes and floating crown appeared exactly as she’d envisioned, and stepped through in three prideful strides.
She did not fidget, nor tap her fingers together, nor look shiftly to the sides, nor did she allow her traitorous subroutines to manage her facial features. And she most certainly did not take a half second to realize all the above was occurring and frantically straighten it all out before anything else ruined her moment.
She was Empress now. Empress. That meant her subroutines should be adjusting her posture and movements to match.
Behind her, the Runner took a few steps into the portal, returning to the underground, back to his tribe, leaving the two alone here as the portal closed behind.
“Emperor Winterscar.” To’Wrathh said, giving him a regal nod.
“Wrath.” Keith said, more in disbelief. As if this was too good to be true and he was deeply suspecting he’d possibly broken some deeper part inside. But there was hope under his voice that even she could hear. “...How?”
“Empress To’Wrathh, thank you.” She said, finding her hands nervously readjusting her new crown to make certain it hovered at the right distance. It took a few milliseconds to isolate the traitorous subroutines making her move around in all these distinctly unregal manners and remind her subfunctions she was now an Empress and should act like one. It had been trivial in front of millions of her subjects to adjust, why was it so difficult to follow basic instructions now?!
Her subsystems returned nominal operation. They calculated what she was most likely to say or do given her thought patterns and handled everything automatically for her in the same way humans moved when they weren’t paying attention. It wasn’t their fault she was acting like this, no matter how much she insisted it was.
She snapped her attention away from her inner thoughts, gave a polite and dainty cough to cover the coverup and moved on before Keith could notice. “Obtaining that title was a very involved process, so please. Empress To’Wrathh. Although I would accept Empress Wrath, if you must.” But only from you.
She almost said that last part out loud. And made a mental note to throttle her language model later, for nearly sneaking it past her.
Keith gave a muffled laugh, rolling his eyes. “I have this nagging suspicion you have a long list of people to thank for that title, including me, me, and me again. Maybe a few others here and there, details.”
Oh this conniving littl- She took a few more steps, until she was arms length away from her human, and then tapped his half-melted chestplate with her finger a few times for good measure. “I happen to remember there was a lot of screaming and panic involved and quite a sum of it came from you. In specific.”
“What? Me? Never. Always knew everything would work out exactly like this. Speaking of… how exactly did it work out like this?”
As in, how was she alive? She told him about the approach, how the station hadn’t fired on them. And who they had found within it. “The first protofeather, A01.”
Keith stared. “The original version was on the station? Not another shard?”
“In the flesh. Or rather, shell.” To’Wrathh brushed bits of snow off her wingtip. They had started building up as she’d told him the events.
“How did you escape then?” Keith asked when she was done. “Wait, did you somehow use her own Unity fractal to escape while Father held her back?”
“No, we had a shortcut. The fractal within my chassis the mites inscribed was a variant of the unity fractal, one made for the singular task of moving a soul from one place to another. Tenisent used it to ferry me away.”
“So that’s how you survived.” He smiled, “You both made it out then?”
To’Wrathh felt her smile fading. “Someone had to remain to the very end, holding Relinquished chained.”
She knew Keith was a clever human. He’d realized what had happened the moment he heard her words.
“He stayed behind.” Keith said, voice going quiet. “So that you might live.”
She could see the unworded question in his eye. “I was there with him.” She continued. “I could sense his thoughts. He saw his life as complete. You and Kidra were protected, in ways that no longer needed him. The last thought I felt was the desire to see his wife again. That he was ready to do so. There was a peace that he’d been searching for and finally found. He sent me away a moment later.”
“I…” Keith swallowed, and looked up. Wrath could see the corners of his eyes freeze up, forcing the man to rub the bits of salty ice off. He gave a stifled chuckle. “He’s been standing between life and death for months now, but he was the most stubborn bastard I’ve ever known in my life. If he decided to tell Death it could kick snow for a few more years...”
She would agree with that assessment.
Tenisent Winterscar could only die when he decided it was time for it.
Keith closed his eyes, and To’Wrathh could see the muscles relax across his brow. “I’m more surprised he’s not tapping my shoulders right this moment asking where his frostbloom bundles are, they’re half a year late. And the evil goddess of all machinekind isn’t around anymore as a convenient excuse to duck behind.”
“He seemed to have largely relaxed his prior rigid standards.” To’Wrathh said, giving him a raised eyebrow. “In the face of inevitability. You do have a way of grinding away at a problem until it relents, even he was not immune.”
“Nonesense, we worked together as a team to wear him down.” Keith grinned back, then looked behind him again. To the broken field of debris. His voice dipped. “I have to tell Kidra. I know you can speak to the entire world at all moments, but… this is something we should do in person.”
“We?”
“I… uh, sorry, I just assumed you… uh,”
“Your assumption is correct, I would appreciate speaking to her directly with you at my side. I equally know where she is.” To’Wrathh lifted a finger and pointed off to the distance. “Kidra Winterscar is currently out in the field among her House celebrating. The Icon tells me she will be looking for you soon, although already knows you are alive. She claims you are too annoying to kill now.”
“I hate to agree on my sister with anything. She’s going to be insufferable when we tell her she’s sadly correct.” He turned back to her, “I’m happy I at least have backup again for that. I hate to admit this, but perhaps you have a… let’s say ‘tiny bit’ of a spot in my cold black heart, and the thought of never scamming you into eating another plate was really unbearable.” Keith sheepishly scratched his neck, which was far more exposed now, since the majority of his poor armor had been mangled in the fight.
It looked quite dashing, in To’Wrathh’s opinion.
Perhaps she should tear the rest of it off. All her study material suggested should be among the next steps forward.
She’d been hunting this human from the very start when he dared close a door on her leg, and then had the gall to kill her with trickery.
Now, after all this time, she’d finally cornered her prey. It was time.
Her evil schemes were all coming together. And the only door Keith could use to hide behind, was strategically behind her.
No escape now, human.
She brought a hand up, coughed to clear her throat in a way that was completely unnecessary given her nature. “And speaking of being together side by side," She flicked her wings in the correct place and struck a regal pose. "Emperor Winterscar."
He blinked for a moment, sensing the formality in the air. “That’s a name I’m going to have a hard time getting used to.”
“Are you not the third and current Emperor of Mankind?”
This would be extremely inconvenient to To’Wrathh’s ultimate plans, although leave it to her human to ruin her schemes at the last instant, somehow.
“... Technically, ye-”
“Good. Stop talking.” To’Wrathh quickly said before Keith could say another word, and then got back to her carefully prepared speech. “I have come here for more than sharing tidings. I have come here to discuss a possible alliance between our people. In the name of peace and prosperity.” She flared out her wings and tilted her chin up, preening. “After all, we have already confirmed that you are the Emperor of human- I see you taking a breath to say something, and it had better be ‘Yes I am the Emperor.’ or else.”
Keith, being a clever human, decided to close his mouth and nod instead as the Empress was rapidly tapping his chest with one finger that promised violence.
“Good.” She stopped the angry tapping, satisfied she’d curbed this particular hiccup. “As fate would have it, I happen to be the Empress of machines. It seems a logical match to me, if you would be so inclined to consider it?”
There was a flash of fear in her system, a thought she had misread everything and every signal up to now. That Keith was not dense as the others had all repeatedly told her - but far worse: Had been uninterested from the start and was simply attempting to remain polite.
But then his cheeks flushed red, and To’Wrathh felt a sense of both instant relief and smugness. She wasn’t alone in having a misbehaving subconscious running a sabotage operation behind her back.
“Is this really for politics… or something more?” He asked.
At that, To’Wrathh couldn’t quite meet him in the eyes, glancing away - and she did not tap her fingers together with slight guilt in any way shape, or form. “No…” She admitted, stopping the finger tapping the moment she noticed. “Politics is a… convenient excuse.”
Ruling the world together as Empress and Emperor of their respective people was certainly dramatic in a way any proper Feather would be green with envy, which did very much appeal to her. But she was greedy and wanted more than just the titles.
“Are you really fine with a dense blockhead like me?” The stupid human asked stupid questions. “I didn-”
“Yes.” To’Wrathh immediately said. Then realized she’d blurted that out loud, and tried to recover it smoothly. “... the dense aspects could use some work. However, I have many textbooks you can study at your leisure. We can improve on that aspect over time, it will not be a problem.”
Keith gave a slow nod, then took a step into her personal space and reached a single hand out.
To’Wrathh took it, curious at his intentions. Without missing a moment, he swung her around in spin that brought her close to his chest.
She found herself tilted off her feet, her face right next to his half-mangled chestplate, owlishly blinking up at what was going on.
She recognized the move. She’d highlighted that in her personal notes from The Ninth Immortal Flame and then made certain it was underlined in red for future study.
This was the exact movement.
Which meant he’d read her books.
Which meant if this continued according to the novel, then Keith would give her a passionate speech - all the while slowly moving closer and closer, inch by inch - and then… and then…
Uh oh.
“Wrath.”
She felt her face flush scarlet, and a distinctly un-empress-like squeak came out.
When had his face gotten this close?! Why was half her system frozen and no longer responding?!
“Wrath, are you… okay?” He asked, now looking more confused and worried.
“I’m completely functional. Nothing is wrong, why have you paused? Stop that, please keep going.” She said.
What she actually said was a set of panicked high pitched squeaks intermixed with a stuttering, and a single instance of lucidity in which she’d managed to nod a few times.
There may have been a mention of a stupid human somewhere. Or three.
She wasn’t certain.
What she was certain about was that she’d rather die than to open up her chatlog and see exactly what her traitorous dialogue subsystems had actually said to her human.
This was all going far faster than she expected it to go. She was supposed to have walked through that portal and swept him off his stupid little feet, and carried him back herself.
Instead, Keith reached his free hand out and carefully pulled both her hands away, where she belatedly realized she’d used to cover her entire face up.
So now she couldn’t hide behind them.
If she had a heart, it would be racing too fast to handle.
“Wrath,” He said, and this time he sounded serious. “If you’ll have me, I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my immortality with you.”
To’Wrathh tried to answer back with something regal, but her language and speech subsystem decided to stop pretending it was malfunctioning and outright mutiny instead.
With no other options, she stopped the frantic stammering, shut her eyes real tight and nodded a few times too fast.
What did they do next in the books? She tried to recall, but it was blindly clear just how similar her neuromorphic architecture was to the human base it modeled: She couldn’t remember a thing, only…
Only the last part.
Which was replaying in her head over and over.
She shut her eyes further with one more muffled squeak, tried to force her cheeks to stop turning so red, and leaned her head forward.
Unfortunately he had done the same, at the same time.
Their foreheads knocked together.
"Ow." He said, pulling away slightly.
To'Wrathh did not say ow, because she was an Empress now, but she did make a noise that was perhaps vaguely in the same general family, and her hands came up to her forehead.
They both opened their eyes and stared at each other.
He started laughing. And she found, to her profound irritation at her misbehaving subroutines, that she was giggling too.
The nerves faded with the sound, and Keith's other hand reached down to gently curl into her hair, now cradling her head.
She found one of her own misbehaving hands had lifted up and cupped his cheek in return. She had absolutely no memory of putting it there, which meant some part of her had been operating completely without oversight, again, and she was going to have words with that part of herself later when she reviewed the logs on how so much of her body was running its own show an-
He closed the gap before she could think another thought.
She had, at one point, constructed a small analytical framework of how to move her lips during a kiss and had several pages of notes from old human media to support her plans. Along with detailed differences between the start point, pressure expected, how to move her lips - the entire process had been meticulously planned out.
Where that memory should be, was nothing more than static. All that was going through her mind was how nice it felt. And how sensitive her lips actually were. How warm his were.
When he finally pulled back, just slightly to take a breath, she equally mimicked his motion. Some part of her knew she needed to look stoic and Empress-like, as if she had everything under control and hadn’t completely lost track of how much time had just passed right this moment.
She needed to give a fitting speech to her newly captured Emperor.
The world was free, and they had made it - improbably, stubbornly, through every obstacle including the stupid human himself - here.
Except nothing came out of her mouth, because she realized she still had a tactical hand on his cheek, ready to grab his chin and pull him back close.
And wasn't that just perfectly convenient?
She was a greedy Feather in the end. And the world could stand to wait a few hours.
For once, her hand actually did what she wanted.
And she wanted him.
END OF 12 MILES BELOW