Godclads

Chapter 5-4 The Agnos

The Agnos are not theologians. Nor are they worshippers of the old faith–though some among their number most certainly wished they were, and could be.

Instead, they are engineers of metaphysics. Those who know the structures of metaphysical philosophy and scripture so well that they know what parts of each canon can be tweaked, and what must remain for a god to be anchored to their Domains.

Under their guidance, the offered–those sacrificed and sent in to fix a Heaven or Liminal Frame–for the only method of access to the absolute by creatures of mortal design is to die–maintain the power of the city and help the Guilds keep their hard-fought peace…

-[REDACTED], “Trials of Agnosis”

5-4

The Agnos

One of the junior Sang had led them toward their “abode,” slithering instead of walking for her body was joined with that of a twelve-foot serpent spliced with the fur and muscles of a hound. Between kitchens with walls lined with chimeric wombs delivering wailing creatures biosculpted to taste both novel and delectable, Avo and Draus followed, their presence shrouded from the “proper” clientele, guided toward the employee elevator.

At once, the structure reeked of iron and bone, a corralled enclosure shrouded by a layer of muscle and tissue, pulsing with each moment. It struck Avo then that he was looking upon something analogous to a heart–that there was an active force lancing through the entirety of the shaft.

He could sense the surging, pressurized liquids propelling the elevator up and down.

Blood. His primary throne of power. One that ensured his victory against the Scalpers even when paired with his lacking skill. And now, all around him, he could feel a building mass automatically gravitating toward him, like he was singularity on the cusp of emergence.

All he needed to do should he wish to collapse this place was plunge a tendril into the walls, and tug.

Then, by Heaven and Rend, he would cast this place into ruination.

Stepping into the elevator, a shiver of pleasure ran up his spine at the thought. The urge teased his mind and incensed the beast. Through the entirety of the establishment, he counted hundreds of accretions scintillating with thought, moving like a dance of constellations. How many could he claim in thaum and ghosts? How many could nourish his strength and–

“You doin’ alright there?” Draus asked, her voice thin, the intent behind her words cutting at him.

Split free from his building bloodlust, Avo blinked. “Yeah.”

The Regular nodded. “Good. Keep it that way, if you can.”

Warily, the Sang turned to fix Avo with a wary glance. He glared back at her, trying not to imagine what it would be like to strip her of flesh from the inside out and how nicely she would suit him as a mangled coat.

She drew away, lip-twitching, and turned to Draus. “Does it always reek of murderous intent?”

“Does the sun always shine?” Avo asked, tired of being ignored. Draus wasn’t his owner. Mirorrhead wasn’t his owner. He had no owners, and now that he was a Godclad, he would greet death eternal before he went back to being someone else’s pet.

The Sang flinched at the harshness of his words; a child not expecting such a stern reprimand, especially from a creature considered barely more sophisticated than a nu-dog.

Draus chuckled. “Word of advice, girl: Don’t make no assumptions ‘bout folk in their presence. It’s rude. It’s impolite. And it’ll get you snuffed.”

“I–yes, apologies,” the junior said.

“Not to me,” Draus said, flicking her head at Avo. “To him. And I’m not kiddin’. You was rude. I don’t like rude no more than he does, you gettin’ my sync?”

Again, the Sang turned, her mouth opening, eyes narrowed at the absurdity of what she was about to do. “I… beg your forgiveness and understanding, esteemed ghoul.”

Esteemed. Avo chuffed a low laugh. How fascinating the way someone quailed when pressed with the weight of superior force. How easy it must’ve been to spend life coddled in such a way.

A sudden silence intruded into his mind, preluding the spark of an epiphany. Was this how Mirrorhead knew life? The Guilds? A world that bent to them–always bent to them? How warped would he be if such privilege was all he knew instead of bloodlust? Instead of hunger?

“All chained to our design,” Avo said, trying to fuse the matter of his words with his fleeting thoughts.

Draus fixed him with a look. “What’s that?”

“Understanding,” Avo said. “I think.”

She didn’t press him further. And for that, Avo was thankful.

At the top floor of the Second Fortune, the atmosphere was infused with a muted serenity set by the ambiance of waters flowing down from canals of bone along the walls, while the air was suffused with flavored incense, sweet and crisp.

Their room, was far down the corner, in the southern section of the building. Past walls of hardened bone inlaid with jewels and jade depicting grand battles from the depths of the sea to the cold of the void, they finally reached their destination.

Room of the Crane. 88.

The junior looked up at the number and giggled a soft, pitying note. “My senior sister seems to think that you need luck.”

“Wouldn’t begrudge some right about now,” Draus said. She looked at the large enamel-coated doors and scoffed. A spiral-like slot glinted at its center while two paintings of ornately dressed individuals with their faces painted shivered upon the doors. “Key.”

The Sang plugged what looked to be a cylindrical shell into the slot. With a click, the creature within the shell chittered to life as it spun, sliding the door open with a twist. The wind whistled out from between the doors as they cracked open.

The hab-cell Draus procured from Green River was a thing of biomechanical luxury. Well, as much luxury as the Warrens could provide, anyhow.

Plush couches lined with soft pillows occupied a far wall. A cheap floating locus hovered in the corner, the heart of an entertainment station with a pre-interfaced holovision projector. Twin beds with lung-like mattresses and a warm pocket of velvety skin serving as covers greeted Avo’s gaze.

He wanted to eat the bed more than he wanted to sleep on it, but still, he appreciated the sentiment.

Walking in, he sensed movement above and found that the ceiling was transparent, allowing him to gaze up into an aortal aquarium, the fishes inside specially biosculpted toward the aesthetic, poems writ with bioluminescence lining their bodies.

“Do you find your furnishings satisfactory?” the junior asked.

Draus nodded. “It’ll do. You send Green River my thanks, and, uh–” A stream of sparkling motes surged out from an opening between Draus’ thoughtstuff, flooding into the junior’s mind. The Sang blinked, slithering backward in surprise.

“I–you over-gift, this… this is too much–”

“Shut up. Take the imps. And when your sisters bring up the ‘third party,’ you make sure she comes straight here, you understand? No lookin’ around. No lettin’ her get lost. You got my confidence, I trust you won’t lose it, right?”

The junior nodded, her expression taking on a dutiful understanding. “Your words. My will. It will not be long.”

“Enthused to hear it. Close the door for us when you leave. Thanks.”

Doing as Draus requested, the junior nodded, shutting the door behind her, but not before leaving the shell key on a nearby table. Inside, Avo walked around the corner and found himself staring at a bio-organic bath stall with a waste disposal slot built into a protrusion along the walls, which were implanted with clay tiles.

The best thing about the place was the distinct lack of mirrors. Not so many reflections at all, come to think of it. But Avo suspected that might’ve been more a thing of deliberate design rather than happenstance.

Green River knew much. Too much. Doubtless, she knew of Mirrorhead’s capabilities as well.

“In a couple of minutes, we’re gonna do a three-way link,” Draus said, her bio-rig unlatching from her. Stepping out of the insectoid exoskeleton, she strode over to the door and planted a small device along its frame. Walking back over, she chucked him four of the coldtech devices as well, their shapes small, with two piercing teeth and a low-light laser that Avo could barely perceive. “For now… you’re tall. Line the corners of the ceiling. Set up the perimeter.”

He did so, though he knew little of how her devices worked. Still, she was the Regular, possessed of experience most needed in their present situation. With that in mind, he once again found himself missing his Ghostjack phantasmic. With its editing properties, he could have made a patrol from his ghosts.

For now, he settled on launching his Whisper high and sweeping his perception through the walls in a slow spin.

Almost immediately, he caught a glint from three moving minds slowly rounding the corner, approaching.

“Draus,” Avo said.

“Ahead of you,” she replied, pulling a square-shaped mechanism from her rig and tossing it in the corner. “Don’t touch that.”

“Don’t want to.”

“Smart ghoul.”

As the three splashes of thoughtstuff drew close, one stood out in particular. It was a fractured thing, clamped in place by wards both internal and external. The damage, even from a glance, made Avo curious. It was as if someone had plunged a thought-shiv or an explosive trauma into a mind and then immediately set about fusing what was broken back together.

That, to Avo, marked a sign that a master Necrojack had inflicted this harm. Or several. For the damage to be this immense, for so many sections of memories to be severed, yet for the mind to be rejoined, it could only mean that whoever delivered the hurt knew what to damage, and what to keep.

This was beyond Avo’s present skill. It would take someone like Walton.

Or anOri-Thaum Incubi.

“Draus,” Avo asked, voice low, “Your third party friend. She ever anger Ori-Thaum?”

The Regular froze, her motion slain mid-stride. “The fuck? How’d you–”

“The damage. Too severe. Takes a real Jack to fix.”

Her expression of surprise, rarely seen and wrought with astonishment, pleased him. She was a good practitioner of her discipline, but he had one all his own.

“Close your mouth,” Avo said, “they’re at the door.”

Draus’ eyes lingered on him a moment longer as she walked over to the door. Before she got there, a series of three knocks sounded. The voice of the junior sounded. “Mistress Draus, your guest, delivered with haste and concern, as per your request.”

Avo pushed his whisper through to get a closer look. Just three. The junior; the third party; an augmented nu-dog carrying an alloy shotgun–the same kind Avo used in the Crucible. Opening a narrow crack, Draus muttered her thanks and let the newcomer in.

The third party was a mouselike woman, dwarfed both in height and musculature by Draus. Cybernetics ribbed the right side of her skull, an exo-cortex. No doubt then that this augment was to make up for the damage she suffered to her visual memory capacity. External storage to bulwark against metaphysically inflicted wounds of cognition. She was dressed in a red polymer synthcoat, and a thin translucent veil ran along the right side of her face in the fashion of the Ori, hiding her clan mark from outsiders.

Fright bled off her every movement and tension lined her sweeping gaze. Her thoughtstuff fared no better, splashing and spiking with each new sensation that greeted her.

And when she laid eyes on Avo, her breath hitched and she reached out to grab for Draus.

The act was so childlike and helpless that he had to fight his instinctive predator response to maul and kill her.

Draus closed the door. The stranger began to hyperventilate.

“Dr-Draus,” she squeaked. “G-g-ghoul!”

Draus shot Avo a look and grinned. “What? Him? Aw, Kae, you don’t need to worry yourself none ‘bout Avo here. He… shit, he bites plenty, but I don’t think you’re part of his diet.”

Kae quivered, shuffling back a few steps to stand behind Draus. The Regular rolled her eyes and made the introductions. “Avo. Kae Kusande. Agnos. Well, former Agnos. Kae, Avo. He’s a… he’s somethin’ different.”

Belief didn’t touch the shine in Kae’s eyes when she nodded. “I-I see.”

“Alright,” Draus said. “Reckon we should link up. Get this meetin’ started.” With a wave of her hand, she activated the mechanism she threw down earlier. A stack of three autoguns extended, each tracking something beyond the walls via vibrations.

With the perimeter covered, Avo drew his Whisper back in and held it forward. Draus connected to him first, her peripheral thoughtstuff pouring into his. Kae, terrified and slow to follow, offered her broken mind only after Draus did. Immediately, Avo could taste the metallic coldness where the machine simulated thought for her.

GHOST-LINK ESTABLISHED

  CLOSED CHAIN FORMED: [3]

+Y’all hear me fine?+ Draus asked, walking over to sit down on the bed. The lung mattress began pumping hard, gathering more air to comfort her mass.

+Y-yes,+ Kae nodded frantically, arms wrapped around herself. Awkwardly, she inched past Avo and went to Draus. He stayed standing. Preferred it that way.

+Alright,+ Draus said. +Avo. Kae here’s someone I trust. With my life. Now, in a moment, she’s gonna take a look at your Frame. But that might need you…+

+I-I might need you to be dead,+ Kae’s thoughts surged out, hammering into them. Draus closed her eyes, a twitch of discomfort running through her. Avo, more obviously, hissed in pain. +S-s-sorry.+

+S’fine,+ Draus said. +Just… keep countin’. Like I taught you.+

Kae nodded. +Okay. Okay.+ She ran her fingers past her weary eyes, grabbing her at stray tufts of hair. Between her index finger and thumb did she grind the strands, her lips chanting counts as she tried to catalog each one, fibril by fibril. +Alright–okay. A look! Let’s—let’s take a look.+ She turned to Avo and swallowed. +Gonna need you to die soon–if that’s okay.+

Well, that was the first time someone politely requested his demise. In a strange way, he found it endearing. As much as a ghoul could find anything endearing; his desire to kill her waned ever so slightly.

+He’s fine with it,+ Draus said, speaking on his behalf. +Done it plenty by now. Should be more than used to it.+

He slashed his eyes over at her, the strength of his glare made twice so by raw incredulity. +More than used to it…+

A thought equivalent to a derisive snort rippled from out of her mind. +Aw. Sorry. Did I assume too much? Well, Kae, seein’ as the ghoul here feels mighty bad about dyin’ and don’t wanna see what’s burning under his hood–+

+Fine,+ Avo growled, his thoughtstuff crackling. +Do I need to do it myself?+

Kae shook her head and pulled a syringe from her coat. +Manticore. K-kills the p-physical mind in seconds. A-and then I’ll follow you in a moment.+

+Follow me? How? You going to die too?+

+N-no. Going to–going to use a False-Hev.+

Avo blinked.

+A False-Heaven.H-Have it b-bound to me.+

He kept staring.

+I–it’s like a shared lobby.+ She held out the needle, the tip near vibrating in her unsteady hands. +Can–can you please c-come over? We do it on the b-bed.+

Avo grunted. Well, since he was so keen on collecting ways to die, what was one more? +Give it over. I inject. Your hands. They shake too much.+

Looking down at her hand, she nodded. +Yeah–yeah. G-good idea.+