1024. To southern sun, 5
(Selya)
I reunited with my weary body. Like last times, I was too much shaken and exhausted to awaken immediately then.
My body lied as dead, rhythms slowing down, temperature dropping, but not really dying. My cells remained quiet, cooling down. No mould was allowed to take over.
Still it’s that I’m feeling unwell with such things. Even now I’m as adapted as a human of modern times turned daiûa can be. But I still would burn if I reached and touched a star carelessly. Extensive journeys outside my traditional body soften my fabrics and wear me down significantly.
I’m not as almighty as the title of goddess might make us think.
The void inside will always be there.
Well, I try not to focus on the existentialist side. I concentrate rather on rebuilding my tired duality of powerful mind and goddess body. My wings flutter, as they inhale a little ambient magic.
I dream. I see that bluish metallic dragon again. What an amazing piece, or even assembly of technologies.
Spooky. To be reckoned with truly. I see in my dark dreams that scaly beast, then orb, with the motions of its inner activities turning air and ambient dusts into warm plasma.
To some extent it must have been able to do all that in older times. But now with T.I; it’s among the things with increased efficiency by some luck or destiny.
What a beating it threw at me.
To the remnant of the city of the sun, I’m an enemy.
But then I already expected as much, and what wouldn’t be?
I was curious and then surprised. And then amazed, but tired.
Interestingly, this means some automated technologies from Solaris have a weird signature frequency in T.I. As if they somehow were adapted to interact this way with it.
This means, if I work and focus on that weird kind of dormant and ambient signal, like a heat signature or a light spectrum; I might be able to find more like it?
Since their masters were annihilated, they have nothing left to report to. No one able to reprogram them or shut them down? Not that it might even still be possible since the arrays have shifted. I bet they weren’t meant to communicate on a hybrid E.M-T.I. frequency. Just now, their physical shifts mean they do.
So we have loose monsters on our hands. Different from traditional ones. Not that I have met that many to know so well what they are. But from Temee’s knowledge shared with me, I can tell a little what that implies.
These synthetic monsters left over by the warmongering civilisation in its graveyard, they could become problems. They could become great resources as well.
We, I, need to keep an eye on them. Not to necessarily covet or systematically obliterate them. But at least to be aware.
Same for the endless Antarctic cyclone that holds the other source. I should keep something in watch out there. It would be more easy than I first expected, since the rest of the continent outside is liveable. Barren now, but the air is breathable and the sky not detrimentally hollow to most solar ionising radiations. It’s a very cold desert though.
I saw how rivers were generally frozen along the mostly mineral landscape.
I have a duty... And I want to do it well. So although I still sleep, I tire myself a little more.
I raise a bigger balloon of a spell. A bigger single use eye, a camera. I let it rise from my body and high into the atmosphere. Something far less complex and costly than my full presence out there.
I raise it to space level, and take a satellite picture of the Earth, looking at one very specific odd frequency. The one for the dragons from the city of the blue sun. Blue dragons for shorts.
I take the time for appropriate exposure. And I print that picture into my head. Where does they shine around the world?
~
I finally wake up.
I’m feeling tired. I have a massive headache still pulsating. I’m dehydrated.
And my sweet friend helps me move my head gently into a more comfortable position before helping me to drink some water.
S - How long?
T - A few days. You were sweaty.
I reek of mould. I didn’t rot but I forgot that everything that sweats from me is... fertile.
I notice patches of grass around me I don’t recognize. This is where she washed and dried my clothes and other wiping cloths over a few times.
S - That is slightly embarrassing. Thank you for caring for me.
T - it’s okay. I can guess it wasn’t easy.
S - Actually slightly better than I expected. The continent isn’t as deadly as I thought it would be. Only one area is really unthinkably otherworldly.
I sit. My body shivers. Temee helps me all too kindly.
S - I’ve seen... A synthetic monster.
T - Synthetic?
S - Yes. The most fascinating of technologies. And also a minor cause for concern.
T - Monsters always will be?
Possibly. But this is different.
I lean onto her a little heavily. It’s nice to be spoiled.
S - Would you be alright if we made a detour on our way?
T - Of course.
S - Even if there is a blue metallic dragon to fight in the end?
T - That sounds like you have a difficult foe in mind... This synthetic monster?
S - I’ve left one to return to its pointless duty and eternal boredom. But I’ve found another one. Much closer. And I think it would be useful to reach it to study what we can of it. Along with preventing future rampages it could cause.
Temee is quiet for a moment. She is a little scared.
T - Was it stronger than the glutton?
S - Far more. Incredibly so. It was supreme as far as I can picture mechanical technology. I’m confident I can win, but it’s likely to be quite a challenging foe... Will... Would you help me? It’s not just to fight for the sake of it, it’s to better understand these kind of things as well.
Because despite the fall, many of these weapons apparently remain. And I wonder how they could devolve or lose their boundaries. If it wasn’t limited by the domain it’s meant to protect anymore, it would cause problems.
And the closest one is south from here, over the Arabian peninsula. In the gulf of the red sea there seem to be an island where one of these things lies hopefully dormant.
Temee braces herself. She steels her resolve.
T - My swords are yours.
S - That’s quite romantic to say.
Even I was blushing for a moment. Temee lets me to stand on my own in embarrassment. I’m amused.
We venture slowly deeper into the primeval valley. But we discuss and agree for where our next objective with purpose should be. Socotra it’s called, according to the maps. An island quite isolated, where I believe I have detected one of these fearsome blue sun war technologies, still reactive. Interacting with T.I.
To learn, to keep watch, to protect more and to cull the threat possibly. To weave an unlikely bond to the Antarctican’s storm?
To prepare the road of helping eyes and hands around that peculiar sanctuary. It’s a reversed sanctuary. A vault?
Making our way to watch and secure this climatic vault eventually, we will have to cross path with the ominous lingering weaponry of Solaris. So getting a first insight closer to home is a wise start I believe.
I’m mulling over all these things over as I recover. That city that vanished. The landing of my palace and its eldritch treasury. The flooding of these T.I. lights, and the structures to hold them properly. My head feels a little overwhelmed.
Temee hands me some water with a hint of tea in it. I thank her. I let most non urgent thoughts to settle and calm.
For now we’re following a river into the depths of the whimsical and horrifying valley.
~
