(II) Unbroken

58 (II)Unbroken

His eye flashed with a flicker of mana, and, for a moment, the world was awash with color. He could see the full spectrum of magic and skills, and of the many machines in the warehouse, a few burned with dim yet vibrant colors.Focusing on the flying bot that dropped the kettle, Shiv received details from the System for the first time.

Name: Teabot00003

Age: 2 Days

Path:

None

That was all he got, however. The skills and other details were still blank.

Uva told him.

Shiv nodded.

“That bot is awakened,” Shiv breathed, looking at Can Hu. “You brought another machine to life… Does that make you its parent or something?”

Can Hu considered that. “That is also another question that will lead me onto a tangent. I am the drone’s creator, and it is evolving, but… Am I alive? Is ? I don’t know.”

“Do you have vitality? A soul? A mind?” Shiv shrugged. “I think that’s what matters, right?”

“So, those that are touched by the System are alive, in your opinion,” Can Hu noted. “Those who can weave mana into skills unattuned and attuned alike?”

Shiv thought about the bot’s question, then nodded.

“I guess then my pilots were not alive,” Can Hu said. “They were not touched by the System. I was the only thing that evolved—a transforming armor that kept them untainted.”

Shiv considered that for a moment. “I—yeah, you’re probably going to want to talk to an actual philosopher about this. I don’t think that much about being alive. I’m not even particularly good at alive.”

Uva bumped her arm into him slightly. “Shiv.”

“Just being honest.”

Can Hu gave a beep of acknowledgement. “I understand. I spend a lot of time alone. I spend a lot of time making, and while I make, I think. Perhaps too much.”

Another two flying drones came by, bringing with them three different cups. The cups, much like the glass, were once broken and now molded back together with inlays of gold. A sound of boiling water gurgled from the kettle, and Can Hu went to pick it up.

“This pot is filled with Glimmer Shade tea. I had the others prepare it while we were on our way. Usually, I brew different teas just to see if my tasting apparatus remains functional. Today, the tea will actually be consumed. How odd.” Can Hu then gestured, and for a moment, Shiv looked on as three more drones came by—these had two stubby, animal-like legs and were shaped like barrels. They knelt down, and Shiv realized they could function as seats. “You may sit on them.”

“I’m a little heavy,” Shiv muttered.

Can Hu laughed. “They are used to ‘heavy.’ They usually help me bear loads of great weight.”

Shiv walked over and tentatively sat down on the bot. He heard it creaking beneath him. It made a shrieking noise.

“Are you sure?” Shiv asked, looking at the bot.

“Yes, it says it can carry you for at least… four hours and thirty-two seconds.”

Shiv reacted by pulling himself up using his gravitic field. The small bot let out a chirp of relief. “I think I’ll spare it the torture,” Shiv said, chuckling.

“To bear your own weight at will…” Can Hu muttered. The bot fell silent as it stared at Shiv. Shiv, meanwhile, looked to Uva as the silence dragged on. She hid her awkwardness better than he did. “It is a wonderful thing. The new one thanks you.”

Shiv smiled. He tested the tea, and the taste was rather sublime. As he did this, another large machine began walking in from behind him. There were machines everywhere, so Shiv had a hard time distinguishing what he was looking at. Sometimes, entire walls moved, and then he realized they had legs or wheels.

“This place is pretty lively,” Shiv said. “You got a nice home.”

Can Hu laughed. “So it is. You are very friendly to automata, aren’t you?”

“Not really anymore than I am to most other people,” Shiv replied. “I’ve just always been around them. I don’t think of bots as any different than anyone else.”

“Perhaps that is one thing I appreciate, living beyond the Dome of Forbidden Africa. You mana-touched all seem to regard us as one among you.”

“Anyone who walks the Path is a Pathbearer,” Shiv said. “Might be simple and naive, but—”

“No. Admirable. Pure,” Can Hu said. It looked at Uva, who just sipped her first cup of tea.

“It’s good,” she said, savoring the flavor. Shiv tasted it as well through their mind bond. “I’m surprised that you can make tea so well. Your tasting apparatus must be quite good.”

“It allows me to detect many flavors, a vast array of chemical compounds, and more. I can analyze what people like exactly.” Can Hu paused. “That is a lie. I can analyze a statistical preference for the bulk of the population, but not much more than that. I am but an old machine built off of code, after all. Just code and silicon and alloy…”

Shiv didn’t know too much about automata, so he just nodded. “Right…” Still, Can Hu’s voice sounded… heartbroken. Shiv kind of wanted to give the bot a hug.

A hissing sound came from behind him, and what seemed to be a large series of cabinets opened up. Their front ends unfurled backward, exposing several cooking stations stacked close together. Shiv’s jaw dropped. He barely stopped himself from tearing up.

“Is that an entire moving kitchen set?

“You said you could cook,” Can Hu said, gesturing at the mobile kitchen. “This is…”

Shiv was no longer listening. He could see the ingredients glittering, highlighted by The Chef Unwavering. He chuckled as he rubbed his hands together. “Can Hu, I am glad to meet you. We were acquaintances, but this just made us friends. Good, good friends.”

Behind him, Uva looked on with an expression of faint amusement, then turned to Can Hu. “He is, uh, like that. Very, very direct.”

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“That is good,” Can Hu said. “That will make what I have to offer very simple, and make our conversation most efficient.”

Shiv immediately began preparing the meal. “What are you feeling like tonight, Uva? Wait, you want to defer to Can Hu instead?”

“There is no need,” Can Hu began.

But Uva insisted. “Of course. The host has already been so kind to us, after all.”

Can Hu regarded them. “Can you make soup?”

Shiv paused. “Soup? Just soup?

“I have many ingredients. I will defer to your knowledge, since you have ceded preference to me.” Can Hu tried to give a slight nod, but its joints locked and rattled before it finished the action.

Shiv went through the ingredients for a bit and found what seemed to be a duck. “Well, let’s see what we can make with this…”

After about an hour, they all indulged in a bowl of Duck Consommé with seared duck breast paired with wild mushrooms. Their tea was bright and blue. The duck was a rich brown, and the soup was a glistening crystal-clear that slid in hits of salt and sour between crisp bites and the light-bitter flavor of the tea.

“This is—it goes together very, very well,” Uva said, sighing with satisfiaction.

The Chef Unwavering > 52

Shiv chuckled. “Yeah, the bitter taste of the tea turned eventually quite earthy. So I added a little bit more salt to the duck to accommodate that. Can Hu? What do you think? Can Hu?”

The bot’s tasting tube thing was still inside the soup. Both Uva and Shiv stared.

“Can Hu?” Uva asked, sounding a bit worried.

“I have gotten a Mental Refreshment boost from this meal,” Can Hu declared. “This is… unexpected.”

Uva blinked. “I have that too.”

Shiv stared at his own notification.

Duck Consommé with Seared Duck Breast Paired with Wild Mushrooms has given you the Mental Refreshment effect.

Shiv looked on in surprise. “Wait, you got the boost too, Can Hu?”

“Correct, the moment I stuck my tasting apparatus in, I was imbued. My soul was refined. You are a very good cook… I can taste it. It goes deeper than just the flesh.”

Shiv didn’t fully know how to reply, so he just leaned back and smirked. “Thanks. Your tea is great. Gave me the idea of how to make this soup. I can’t believe you got a boost too. Thought it had to be fully consumed to work.”

“A shared surprise is a welcome memory,” Can Hu declared. “It is a good thing to take inspiration from the world. I’m glad to have inspired you.”

The bot reared back, but before it straightened, it started to spasm and twitch.

Both Uva and Shiv flinched from Can Hu’s mechanical seizure. “You alright?” Shiv said, reaching over.

Can Hu held out a shaking hand. “Do not—do not use your field to stabilize me. It will cause more… more damage.”

“Alright,” Shiv said, pulling back.

It took ten seconds for the episode to end, and Can Hu rotated his joints in the aftermath, testing for fullness of movement. “Apologies.” The optics in its half-skull head flickered. “These episodes—there are fewer than before, but they still come. They last for varying intervals. I try to control myself. This is why I avoid crowds.”

“It was worse before?” Shiv asked.

“I improve slowly, day by day,” Can Hu replied. “My Toughness might remain sundered, but my other skills—they can repair my soul. It makes things better. If I continue growing what I have, perhaps someday I will be strong enough again. Not as strong as I was, not as capable as I once was, but strong enough.” Can Hu regarded Shiv. “I miss flying. While you flew, while you kept us afloat, I remembered. I remembered who I once was…”

Shiv listened as the old machine sank into a memory. A memory that neither him nor Uva could perceive. There was something about a bot’s mind that worked different from that of an organic. Psychomancers could usually see into an automaton’s mind, but they rarely could get anything. Not unless they understood the frequencies or numbers that made up a machine’s thoughts.

Can Hu sighed. “I remembered the bombing runs I conducted. I could go beyond hypersonic. The world was beautiful at that speed. The horizon always rushing towards you. The numbers, the telemetry, the dogfights.” Shiv couldn’t fully grasp what it was describing, but there was so much emotion in Can Hu’s voice that he felt bad for the bot again. “I hope that someday you will have these experiences too. Perhaps I will be the cause of them… Ah, yes. The main reason we are here. I would like to see your current armor,” Can Hu declared.

And now they were down to business.

Shiv hesitated for a moment before he reached into his cloak and pulled out one of his bone armor sets, the most recent one he’d swapped out when he got new clothing at Fel’s store. Can Hu observed the armor and turned to Shiv.

“You understand this armor—this set of appearances, this aesthetic—it has implications in the Abyss, especially with the Necrotechs.”

“Yeah, they call it wearing the visage of death or something,” Shiv replied.

“And do you? Do you wear the visage?”

Shiv grinned viciously. “I do more than wear death.”

“Very good. As long as you understand the implication and do not merely ape an aesthetic, I will respect it. There must be substance to art. Substance before color.”

The automaton rose from where it sat and examined Shiv’s armor. “Adamantine Adaption would make modifying your body very difficult. I will have to use alternating means, both frost and fire, to shape anything. It will take years to reforge a Master-Tier set from this…”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to have that much time. There’s someplace I need to go soon.” Shiv winced. “There’s someone I need to face, and I need Master-Tier armor with a good vitality enchantment.”

“Correct,” Can Hu replied. “I cannot make you Master-Tier armor in that time, but I can integrate myself into what you have. Or, more specifically, build a new exoframe for myself, and serve in place of the enhancements.” This update ıs available on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

“You’re going to fuse yourself into my armor?” Shiv asked. He wasn’t sure about this. Uva didn’t seem very convinced either.

“Yes. I just need some time to…” Can Hu trailed off. “It will take some cutting. Then, I need wires and other articulations. This will require experimentation. I will probably require several sets of your armor, if you have them. Are they difficult to create?

Shive responded by throwing out a few more sets of armor, even those of the Diamond-Shelled variety. “Not particularly. It just takes a bit of dying.”

“That is more than sufficient. I will ask you should I require more material. My current plan is to carve out a section of the spine, to infuse myself within the inner layer. Afterward, I could be worn without much difficulty and provide active support in combat. I have… several advantages left in my systems that most armors do not provide. And I am already broken as well. You are going to fight a Necromancer, correct?”

Shiv paused. “Yeah.”

“Good. I saw his face through Foreshadowing. He deserves death for what he has done, and I yearn to bestow a righteous end upon him. Then the odds are, if he strikes me, he will only strike what is broken. Something cannot be sundered twice. The soul’s wounds remain wounded. My ruined skills cannot be sundered twice.”

“I…” Shiv was really uncomfortable about this. “Won’t that just hurt you more?”

“Does armor fear pain?”

“No, but—”

“Then the question is answered,” Can Hu insisted. “I am alive. But I was always armor. I do not fear wounds taken during battle. Wounds I can mend and restore.”

“But what about your remaining skills?” Uva asked.

“I will see them protected as best as I can,” Can Hu said. “And they are protected by the debris that compose my soul and mana.” Can Hu let out a hissing rush of steam from its joints. “Leave the armor with me. I will present myself to you in two days.”

Shiv clenched his teeth. “But…”

“I have vitality. I am the right kind of broken, and I still have more… there is still more of me left… I can still fight.” And Shiv realized the machine was practically begging. “Please. Please. Just let me work. Let me show you. I am still worth something. I am. I am.”

And Shiv just didn’t have the strength to say no. “Okay, yeah, I’m fine with that. Just, I don’t want you to—you know, we barely know each other. I don’t live an easy and safe life. I fight pretty vicious things, Can Hu. I don’t come out alive a lot of the time.”

Can Hu regarded him. “I am still a Penitent. I remember fire. I remember death. I remember the deaths I’ve caused. I remember everything.” Can Hu held its hands up. “Have you ever killed the undeserving, Shiv? The innocent?”

The question hit Shiv like a blow to the gut. But Shiv was always direct, and he didn’t turn away from pain or discomfort. “Yeah,” Shiv said immediately. Uva regarded him for a moment, but she understood. She knew. She'd seen his memories. “I… got into a fight with an orc. It went pretty bad. I tunnel-visioned on the bastard. And I… A lot of people got caught in between. They shouldn’t have died. I should have been more careful.”

Can Hu spoke as if offering guidance. “Something like that. Precise, maybe. More thought-out. Then you fight like an Artillerist. You are walking artillery. Our pieces align evermore.”

“Well, some people call me a monster,” Shiv replied. “But yeah, I do break things. And people. I’m trying to do better.”

“Then we are one and the same.” Can Hu sighed. “Your hands are stained with blood. They are not stained like mine. You were careless. I was a good armor but a bad Pathbearer. I accepted my orders, and I regret… I regret. I wish to make things right now. I wish to save more lives than I have taken. To build more than I have broken. Please. Allow me this. I care not if I perish, so long if it is for a just end. Please.”

Shiv regarded the machine and held back a frown. “All right. So, in two days, I’ll come see you and… what you can do.”

“In two days,” Can Hu confirmed. “In two days, I will show you my worth. Or what remains of it. You came here seeking true armor. I am broken. But I am true. And I will give you more. Much, much more.”