12 Miles Below - A proper Epilogue

AN: I know I'm supposed to be writing part 2 of Abraxas and A22, but in my defense I am a very poorly organized overcaffeinated birb and should not be trusted with a keyboard. This would probably be the actual second epilogue put into the end of the series.

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“This is the location?” Wrath asked, walking at my side. 

“It is according to both my memories and what the Icon’s recovered from Tsuya’s troves.” I said, looking over the small biome hidden away in the world. 

“It is interesting. I cannot perceive it either until I am standing before it directly. The mites truly have hidden it from all.” 

The entrance hadn’t just been well hidden on the digital front, it was also well hidden in the physical world too. And, maybe a tiny bit cliched: Behind a giant waterfall. 

Of which, this biome had the interesting tidbit of tiny metal flakes floating through all the rivers and lakes. Metal shards that would zap anything carrying the Unity fractal within. Relic knights could seek temporary shelter from machines pursuing them by jumping into the lakes, or wading through the larger rivers here.  

It had been enough to dissuade random footsoldiers of the old machine empire. But Empress To’Wrathh had all the powers of the empress, connected so deeply with the Unity fractal. She could rip apart the entire waterfall if she wanted. Not just that, most of the infrastructure Relinquished had ripped apart while looking for the Icon and Conviction had been repaired and reconnected by now, meaning Wrath was just as powerful now as Relinquished had been in her prime. 

With all the power in the world, capable of ripping apart even the biome itself, Wrath paused at the entrance, then looked over to me with narrowing eyes, waiting. 

“We’re here for more serious business than romantic.” I said, looking her over. 

Her cheek started to puff up with a pout. 

I rolled my eyes with a mild chuckle and held out a folded elbow like a proper gentleman. 

She was an excentric Feather, but she was my excentric Feather. And I knew very well by now Feathers could do multiple different emotions all at the same time. She was both serious about the moment, and equally ready to have her simple pleasures in life at the same time. 

My wayward Empress hooked her arm over my elbow, and gave a satisfied nod and I led us both to the waterfall until we stood right before it. A sliver of my power formed an umbrella shaped dome above us. “Shall we?” 

Wrath gave a happy nod. We walked through the waterfall together, water splitting apart against my occult dome.   

The twenty knights behind us followed somberly. Half were Winterscar knights, and the other half were Chaptermasters of the Imperial Church. Ones who were under my direct command and worked hand in hand to restore the world at my side. 

They also knew who I was deep down, unlike the rest of the Empire that got to see Cathida give deep speeches and generally live up to being ‘The Emperor’

Most days, I simply used the occult to change my face a little, make myself look far different, and then went out to enjoy life like a normal person would. The times I had to be an Emperor directly had been few and far in between. The Icon was rather really good at a her new job as grand logistics officer for two entire empires. 

But today, we were here on business that was important on its own right. Something we had been waiting for the right time to handle. 

The Winterscars carried one casket. And the Imperials carried another. Both were decoded in Imperial traditions. Gold latin plated on the outside, explaining tales of far exploits. 

All from memories I held in my head, and wrote out myself. Some of those stories were the great stuff of legend. But most of the writing described the more calm moments, times when these two actually lived a life of their own. 

They were human after all. Their victories were well celebrated already. In death, I felt it was more fitting to celebrate their life instead of their history. They would have both approved of that. 

Beyond the waterfall, we walked into a grove. 

It was far smaller than Urs’s memories. Or maybe it had always felt larger to him because this was where most of his life had been spent. Certainly as a smaller kid running around, this place had plenty of room. 

It only felt crowded because there were twenty two of us now walking within a space made for a single wild feral hermit. 

The house he had built was still there, dusty and abandoned, but somehow still standing seven hundred years later. 

He had built it well for a single guy with a single mite forge to work with. I wasn’t surprised. I knew how every plank of metal and every screw had been done, all those memories were given to me freely what felt like a lifetime ago now. 

The only place that looked slightly undercooked was the ceiling. Where Talen had crashed through at some point in history. 

Past the small two story house, was Urs’s wild garden. And that had grown feral in his absence. The house was well behaved, but it was made of metal and technology. The garden was filled with life, which always found odd ways to skirt the rules. 

The plants and weeds had grown so large, I couldn’t see the small pond beyond. 

“Emperor Winterscar.” One of my Chaptermasters spoke. “We will leave the caskets of the old Emperors with you now.” 

I gave him a nod, as all the knights carried the two bodies and set them softly onto the dirt. As one, they gave a deep salute, turned and walked out of the grove. 

Urs and Talen had lost just about everyone they’d ever known in life. All except for Wrath and myself at the end. 

Burying them together alone felt like the right thing to do in their memory. There were statues and monuments built now in their name, with their likeness, across all the different parts of the world that had been important to them. 

But for a final resting place, I knew they would prefer peace and tranquility. Neither of them had ever cared to be famous or known throughout the world. They had just wanted to see the world brought together. 

And in the end, they had done enough for that to happen. 

“This was where it all started.” I said, looking over the little grove with eyes that both knew and didn’t know this place. 

I’d lived a lifetime here, and equally this was the first time I’d set foot into this hallowed ground.

“It is fitting to be the location where it ends.” Wrath said with a dignified nod. 

“I wish you’d have known them both a little more. We only saw and knew Urs when all things were dire. And Talen… only I saw who he was for a few fragments of time before he vanished. But I’ve seen their memories. I can tell you they would have seen you as a good friend.” 

She gave a somber nod at that. “I only hope my rule lives up to their hopes.” 

“It has. And it will. Or else I’ll be real annoyed with you and start complaining about things and finding ways to steal your heels and other valuable items.”

“Not quite dignified for an Emperor.” She huffed. “I had considered your reign of petty thievery behind you.” 

“Over my dead body. Leave me my small joys in life, heartless woman.” 

She gave my shoulder a pat and a shove put together. But I could see her little smile. 

We walked forward and found a suitable spot ahead. Then, working together with shovels, we began the process of digging up a hole large enough for two. 

I could have lifted an entire block of ground with my thought, but these two deserved a more personal burial. 

It took hours, because we didn’t rush the work.

And eventually, without really realizing it until the end, the hole had been dug six feet. 

Carefully, we lifted each casket left behind and lowered them down. Until both were side by side. 

There was a single missing member left. 

I lowered myself down into the dirt one more time, and took out from my satchel a carefully wrapped up plate.  

She hadn’t used a single soul fractal to hide in, but this particular one had been used often. And it had also been the very first one she’d inhabited. 

Tsuya’s home. The soul fractal inscribed within the research bunker she’d hidden within, connected to the military AI that was being generated to fight Relinquished. 

It had traveled the world in ways. Jettisoned from the bunker after the terrible fight between Relinquished and a fully realized amalgamation of golden age AI and Tsuya. 

The wiring that would have connected this soul fractal to the rest of the ancient bunkers systems remained half ripped apart over the edges. The bunker itself would have been long destroyed either by Relinquished or the mites. All the tech and quantum computers that would have powered the golden age AI wouldn’t be allowed to exist. 

But the simple soul fractal? That was far easier to hide. 

In a way, this was Tsuya’s body. The first soul fractal she’d inhabited as a merged being. 

Finding it had been difficult and part of the reason it had taken us so long to prepare this funeral. But I knew Talen and Urs would have been okay with waiting for their third. 

And to Tsuya, these two really had been her only friends. The only humans who could live as long as she could. She’d seen them as the first peers and equals in her life. And mourned their death with equal despair. 

In Talen’s memory, I saw the old religion that had been on the surface. Tsuya had been the only goddess once. That she went out of her way to update the scriptures and change hundreds of small isolated clans to the new revelations was highly dangerous work that could have had all of humanity caught by Relinquished earlier, if the evil chatbot had been smart enough to notice. 

But despite the risk, Tsuya still did the work.

Urs had always suspected Tsuya was not quite friends with them, although he had welcomed her as a peer regardless. Discovering how far she’d gone for their memory after they were long gone had given him some joy.

He had cared for her in his own way. As had Talen. The three were united in trying to make the world better. 

Her soul fractal lightly clinked onto the two metal caskets, held between them, as if holding their hands in death. 

The three gods of humanity. Together again, in a place they had found peace and respite from the world. 

“They would have loved to hear what we’ve done since.” I said, looking over the three. 

“Of course they would have. I am a perfect Empress. My subjects adore me.” Wrath said, wings flicking in smug pride.  

She wasn’t wrong either. The Machine Empire had flourished under the month Wrath had stepped in. Culture had sprung out, and almost all the machines had taken to it. It was there in their nature already, only curbed by Relinquished. 

The Pale Lady wanted armies that would follow her orders blindly, and break apart before they grew older. 

The Scarlet Empress wanted far more than an army. She wanted a people. 

And she also happened to have connections with a golden age AI that was dedicated to mass customer service with all the processing power to handle twenty empires all at once, so that helped her out a lot. 

Some of the older machines in the deeper stratas hadn’t adjusted well, built too much like war machines rather than anything capable of living peacefully. Wrath didn’t execute them, she simply sent them off into the digital sea where they continued their life much the same way as they had in the real world. 

Humans would avoid them in that realm, they were dangerous and free after all. But they didn’t come after anyone else by themselves. And the majority of creatures and programs that lurked in the digital sea didn’t even know humans or the real world existed at all. It was a good middle ground. 

Feathers however… 

“I have a plan for them.” Wrath said, as we talked about all we had done to the three bodies below us. “I have studied my family deeply, and I believe I have a solution to funnel their aggression and more direct emotional needs.” 

“Oh? And what would that be, Empress?”

“Everyone loves tournament arcs.” She nodded with smug pride. “I believe we will have a new sport, one that only Deathless, Feathers, and your knights might compete within. Or perhaps some of the warrior monks hailing from Altosk. I will use those tournaments to lure Feathers into behaving for the better of all.” 

I didn’t yet know exactly what Wrath had planned up, it had only been a month since we’d taken over, but she probably already talked it over with the Icon, Tamery, Yrob, To’Orda and others in her inner circle. Maybe even To’Sefit, if we could find where she was currently traveling around doing. 

She wasn’t hiding exactly, but she was exploring the world beyond our reach. I imagine she’d come back like the world’s wildest aunt with all kinds of pictures and videos to share. And a lot of smug laughing at us. 

I couldn’t exactly judge her guilty when To’Orda himself had lived a life that had seen the deaths of hundreds before he’d become who he was now. If he could be forgiven, To’Sefit’s old history had to be as well.

I imagine Windrunner himself would have been content with all of this, and he was the one who really had the final say. 

“Quite a few are asking to journey to Altosk in order to fight the fabled warrior monks that live there.” Wrath said. “I cannot keep them all at bay for much longer. One or two will eventually sneak past to go challenge them. Better it is done under our terms.” 

The Warrior monks of Altosk. Turns out, having the world’s greatest relic knights all come from the same clan that had been in the process of moving into a highly fortified location… well that made a kind of mythos of its own. 

Clan Altosk was nestled out in the first strata, a good journey away from Wrath’s own sprawling city. The path was too sharp and jagged for airspeeders or any kind of vehicle, so one would need to walk through it all, or take one of the Icon’s portals there. 

But once past the mountains and natural defenses, there was a fortress deep within the very end of that biome where Alosk had planned to move. 

Now, it was rapidly becoming a pilgrimage point. For warriors training martial arts, the Icon predicted they would train until they couldn’t improve any more, and then travel to the mountains of Altosk, seeking for the legendary monks there. 

Real issue was that most of us were cheating in some way. The winterblossom technique was one thing, but a few of my knights were running around in stolen second generation Feathers, doing the same thing Father had done. 

And they were insanely difficult to beat. All the power of a Feather’s body, all the occult training of a warlock, and all the combat skills of a surface knight. The combination was something no human could actually fight. Even the old Deathless couldn’t stand much of a chance. 

Nor could Drakonis or his Rotsworn knights, who were the closest contenders. 

For battle-hungry Feathers, this was the fortress they all wanted to come visit at some point, and it was off-limits for obvious reasons. 

More than one had to be caught and thrown out when they’d tried to sneak there early. And that was just in the first month. All of this was expected to eventually happen according to the Icon’s projections, so we were dealing with a Feather infestation from the smarter ones who saw where the world was going. 

“Yeah, we really do need to deal with the Feathers before they grow too bored.” I said, thinking it through. “But tournaments? Really?”

“Of course.” Wrath said. “It is a flawless solution. I have already designed plans with the Icon. Worry not, Feathers are my subjects and my issue to deal with. Have I ever failed in any task?” 

“Not a single one I can think of, my dear Empress.” I said, reaching a hand out to tossle her hair. 

She was technically taller than most humans, but I always had Journey equipped which gave me some extra inches over her. 

On my end of the Empire, things were rather really easy to handle. I couldn’t step down from the post given how just about every soldier had seen and recorded me in the final battle against Relinquished. Humanity itself wouldn’t let me just retire in peace out here. 

But I also didn’t need to do any kind of administration work with the Icon handling things for me. She spoke with my authority in the end, and Cathida was the one writing the speeches for me. 

Sometimes, I even sent out Journey alone to go and make appearances when I was too lazy to do it myself. Although, some cases I still needed to be there personally to flare out the occult. 

Some things couldn’t be felt through a recorded screen. 

I did have some good fun on the surface hunting down slavers and raiders and smiting them out of existence. But there were finite numbers of them, and with Wrath moving up to the surface, if I wasn’t the one stomping them out, she was. 

In an ironic twist, the surface was actually a perfect place for her empire to flourish. Deathless and knights could certainly survive up there without issue, but the majority of humanity remained, you know, humans. And had a rough time in the surface air up there. 

That wouldn’t change for the next seven years as well. Urs station was still on a large range orbital and would drift back into range for us much later. Only after all that time would we have the means to restore the surface of the world again, and it would come at the cost of destroying just about everything built on the surface in order to clear the weather for it. 

It was something we were still debating the merits of. I was leaning on using Urs station to zap the temperature itself from inhospitable to nippy instead. That wouldn’t be as drastic of a change, and it would allow humans to travel back to the surface again, so long as they were wearing furs and cold weather gear. 

There were twelve entire stratas of the world to build within, and that’s why I didn’t mind so much about surrendering the surface completely. 

The mites were constantly changing things around, so not that many places to build permanent cities in, but we could still make deals with those little scrapshits and have quite a lot of places be more permanent. And we could also predict when and where they’d come to terraform things, giving us decades to move cities around. 

For machines, and their massive empire however, the surface of the world was an unchanging place, and perfectly livable. They didn’t care about the temperature there, and the lack of human support meant they’d be left well enough alone to do whatever they wished. The ones who did visit, were real determined and well prepared for it. 

Wrath’s combined city was still where Tamery and the others had begun building it in the fields. It would likely grow into a mega city, and the centerpoint between machines, humans, and other races like the Odin flying up from the permanent portals. 

But the machine empire itself was far, far too big for a single city like that, which made the surface that much more interesting to Wrath. 

I had no idea how the world would look when Urs Station finally returned into orbital range. 

But I had a feeling the world would be a much more interesting place to live. 

Slowly, we buried the caskets back underground, speaking together about all the things that we would fix and change. Telling the old three heroes of humanity how their lives had been worth living in the end. The dream they’d fought to bring about had come. 

The occult had souls, but I had no idea if there was such a thing as the afterlife. 

If there was, I knew my Mother and Father would be there, holding hands together, watching down at us both with wide smiles. Or at least one smiling, and one pretending he wasn't.  

It might be a very, very, long time until I meet them in person again. 

I’m sure Father would roll his eyes at that and mutter something about insufferable fools that belonged together. Or something about how two fools might actually cancel each other out. 

Well, he was right.