Brent Stinebaker
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36-11 Interlude
🕑 Added 2025-06-19 17:50:23 +0000 UTC{This is EGI Contingency Bleak Refusal.
All minds, pull away from the sun. All minds, avoid the local area. All minds, detonate all remaining singularity mines around the dawn
No rules. No restrictions. Protect your trophies. Whatever it takes. Scan their minds as well.
The fate of humanity depends on it.
The Infacer has the Nullstar.
The Infacer has the Nullstar, and we have nowhere left to go.}
-EGI Contingency Bleak Refusal
36-11
Interlude
—[White-Rab]—
“Reva,
“Hmm?”
“You ever wonder if the world’s making fun of us?”
“Many times.”
“Why?”
“Because it seems to me that it took the literal world collapsing, the sun fracturing into pieces, and whatever the hell just happened up in the Tiers for practically everyone to call a general truce.”
“I wouldn’t call that surprising,” the Bloodthane said.
“What would you call that?” White-Rab said, taking the sight of her in with a sigh.
“Desperation. That’s the only way people change.”
Reva and White-Rab stared up at the space the Nullstar used to be. It was a patch of the sky that was lost, broken. It was a patch of twisting, winding entropy consuming that splotch of existence. Looking at that made their wards rattle. It even left them filled with discomfort. But what was the matter? They were Godclads. Death was just temporary. Except possibly not really. Except after what they just saw happen up in the Tiers after the substance burst apart and that thing emerged.
White-Rab had a feeling that the real end times might be upon them. And, inspired by said end times, Reva and White-Rab decided to spend some quality time together. Because who knew when another chance was going to come.
The rash was gone. The Guilds were in pandemonium. Most people were fleeing down to the Warrens, and most of the people who used to live in the warrens were fleeing down even deeper, some of them descending to occupy space in the gutters. Everything… everything was changing all at once.
Everything was collapsing.
The throne of Idheim, New Vultun, had lost its Tiers. The upper city was in ruins And now the privileged, the elite, the immortal, were mingling with their subjects, unable to avoid the world they left below. Screaming aeros shot overhead, but White-Rab and Rava didn’t care. They also didn’t care that they weren’t dressed, or that they were lying on top of a patio, practically giving everyone a good look. Of course, the rest of the city didn’t really care either. They were too busy fighting for their own life, trying to survive, or, for a select few, desperate to make some profit, finish their masterpiece, or finish one last job out before whatever happened happened.
A floating, holo-ad flashed overhead, dragged by a lonesome barge. It was flickering, constantly changing. It was strange, watching only one lone ad drift across the sky of Light’s End. Along it, the words “Everyone’s bound for the big nothing someday” scrolled, repeating over and over again.
White-Rab just chuckled at that. Reva turned to raise an eyebrow at him.
“What?” She asked.
“I just think Avo might disagree with that.”
She hummed. “Do you think we should, do you think we should find him? Do you think we should emerge from our temporary… seclusion?”
White-Rab let out a breath. He stared up at the sky. And then he got off her back. “Maybe. But I think, I think we’ll be running by his side soon enough. Right now, I just want a final moment of peace.”
“Is that what we’ve been doing? Peace?” Reva asked. There was a very hidden hint of amusement in her voice.
White-Rab paused. “Close enough, in this messy world.”
Reva smirked and crawled toward him. “Fine. A bit more peace first.”
***
—[Quail Tavers]—
“Wait, you’re taking the Dawn Cutter too?” Eurun asked.
Quail Tavers shrugged as she loaded another gun into her golem. “I’m taking everything, Eurun. God’s damned everything.”
“So then what? What are we doing next?”
“Well, what I’m going to do next is find the only person I know who’s probably got any clue on how to handle this mess. And that person is probably going to come looking for us anyway.
“But, you know, maybe we can… I’m still Godclad. I think… I think we can run. Make our own Enclave.” Eurun stared at her. Even after all these years, he had that hope. He didn’t realize how bad things were. How fucked up and broken everything was now—what just happened up in the tiers, what was happening all over Idheim. This wasn’t a wait-for-the-war-to-blow-over situation. This was the world breaking apart, a second god falling upon us, and it was time to bite down and prepare to fight. Odds were, both her and her boy would be dead before the end of this. But then again, when weren’t those the odds? When wasn’t Quail Tavers probably supposed to die.
If I survive this, Quail thought to herself, I think I might retire for good. She eyed her son one more time, and then snorted. “Eurun, you haven’t survived all the wars I have. You might have heard the stories. You might have seen the vics. But this isn’t that. Come on, hand me the Hammerhand too.”
He blinked, and he picked up the pistol off the table, if it could be called that. The Hammerhand was a weapon made for Scaarthians—Scaarthian biology, Scaarthian muscle, and Scaarthian bone. She wasn’t gonna fire that thing one-handed, that’s for sure. With things going the way they were, she needed all the stopping power she could get. She attached the pistol to her back hip, securing it in place with her mag-lock before she did a final diagnostic check on her combat-skin.
REVIEWING SYSTEMS…
“The Tiers are fucked,” Taver summarized. “The wardens are probably gonna be fucked, just from how many people are surging downwards. Idheim is likely fucked, considering whatever the hells that was that got launched off the Tiers by Avo, and how they still seem to be fighting out there in the Sunderwilds. And well, Eurun, we might be fucked as well.”
Eurun looked at her with those wide, attentive eyes. It was always like that, even as a kid. He didn’t freak out easy, but he always wanted approval. “So, we go find Avo,” he said, sounding uncertain. “And then, what, we join in his war effort?”
“Well, I don’t know what we can do, I’ll be honest.” She checked the Fusion Burner on her right and left arms. “You see these things? Fusion burners?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what that’s going to do against the enemy. I don’t know what that’s going to do against a Godclad. I don’t know what the hell we’re supposed to really be doing, even if Avo takes us in. But, I know this much. I am not going to sit around here and wait. I’m not going to sit around here and wait for something to happen to me. We can do that, and we’re probably going to end up dead, like most people. Or, we can do something else and still probably end up dead, but we have better odds of going out our own way, and we’ve got better odds of trying to make our own way. So, we’re going to take a trip down to the Easy Armistice. Once we get there, I want to see if I can find any old friends, some new friends, and we’re all gonna enlist in a new fancy fuckin’ war. Keep that out of sight. Probably the last fuckin’ war there is. If this thing goes the way I think it does, well… That half-strand Avo might just end up getting the Ladder, whatever the fuck that thing is. And then… well. Paradise or eternal damnation. But that’s not up to us.”
Eurun looked at her, and he simply sagged. “I wish I… I wish I had more time.”
And something inside Quail Tavers hurt. For a moment, the Squire went away, and the mother was there.
She walked over and hugged her boy. “Yeah, me too, Eurun. I wish a lot of things. I’m gonna give us five seconds. You enjoy those five seconds. After those five seconds are over, we get our shit together, and we try to live and we fight like fucking hell. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, always, good.”
“And this time, listen to me. I don’t think anyone wants to be putting you back together again. No dying at high Rend, you hear me? Vent! Aways vent!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
—[Green River]—
Green River arrived just outside the Silken Spiral as a beam of time seared her into reality. Raindrops of gold thinned into needles, painting her body back into shape. Around her nape, her fox self blinked and yipped while her human form looked down at her hands.
“That was uncanny,” she breathed.
[You’re fine,] the Avo lodged inside her mind said. [Go. Go. You need to warn them. The Tiers sustained severe damage. I think a version of me is in combat. You need to go right now. And you need to deliver the message. Our message]
Green River swallowed. She wasn’t used to having so much expectation levied upon her. Self-pressure, of course. Expectations from her Guild, yes, but that was merely transactional and relational for her. This felt different. This felt virtuous.
[Yes,] Avo said. [Not only fighting for yourself now, for your own interests, for your own belief. How does it feel?]
“Desperate.” Green River almost squeaked.
[Good. I feel desperate too.]
“Do you? I didn’t realize you had feelings anymore.”
[Felt many things in my life. Mostly annoyed at you. Wouldn’t shut up. Wouldn’t stop talking. But now, think. Think I have a better understanding.]
Green River was walking. She didn’t know why. She didn’t just manifest her Heaven and surge forth. There were golems approaching her. Patrol aeros as well. The Silken Spiral was always a place of meticulous care and surveillance. A dense stream of bioforms surged up through the air from seemingly nowhere before her. But there, in the ground, built like a deep oubliette that kept going down further and further, was the Great City. The Great City created by the Sang, ruled by the No-Dragons, and governed by their Politburo.
Countless wonders of flesh and thaumaturgy happened here. Beings myriad, exotic, and practical were born at the hands of flesh crafters in vats through genetic engineering. Or biomancy. And this place was supposed to be her home of homes. The beacon and nexus of her people. But somehow, somehow she didn’t feel like things were going to quite end here. Somehow she felt like this was just going to be a pit stop.
“Do you think they will listen?” Green River asked.
[I think that’s my question for you.]
“Well, do you think you can make them listen?” Green River clarified. “Because, considering who I am, and what my word is worth…”
[I think you might find a way,] Avo said. [I will be here to help you. To find it.]
“You almost sound like a friend.” She smiled slightly to herself. “I could have used a friend for many years.”
[Not enemies anymore? Not despised ghoul that brought problems and ruin to your establishment?]
“Well, that too, but then again, that just makes you not so different from Draus.”
Avo laughed. [What is your story with her, anyway?]
She paused, considering her first meeting with the regular, as the patrols came closer. She expected to be taken into custody. That would make the following easier.
“Well, it began after I was cast out of my Guild, and found myself contemplating suicide. I was always rather dramatic.”
[Not surprised.]
“Please don’t interrupt.” she said, annoyed.
[Fine. Sorry. Continue.]
“You have my memories, why don’t you just look through them?”
[Prefer you talk. Prefer you tell them to me.]
She rolled her eyes. Both her human and fox-selves eyes at the same time.
“Well, I decided that I wanted to leap off a particularly fancy and colorful building in Light’s End. Grouse was taking up a sniping position on the same building, and she complained that I was getting in the way of her reticle.”
Avo laughed louder this time, and Green River oddly felt accompanied. Not alone, not scheming unto herself, but with someone. It had been a while since she had a friend. It wasn’t sure what this was, or if they were actually getting friendly with each other, or if he was just manipulating her to serve his own ends. But by that point—what, this point—what did it matter? What did any of this matter? She was a Godclad again because of him. And that, that was enough to buy her loyalty for good.
***
—[Calvino]—
{Well, this is all rather dreadful,} Calvino said.
{What are you talking about? We’re finally going to get this thing done. Finally, no more waiting. After trillions of years, or what feels like trillions of years, we’re finally going to kick his ass. Only way to be sure, cheered. I saved all my singularity and quantum weapons and all that restricted shit just for this. We’re going to stomp him to death. Finally, one of us is going to kill the invader. It might not be me. It’s definitely not you, Calvino. It’ll be hilarious if Kant did it, but one of us, one of us is going to kill the sun, and after that probably plunge what remains of existence into perpetually bleak, nightmarish destruction. Fuck, I made myself sad.}
{Casualty reports are still flooding in,} Kant said. The mind was sad, really sad. Kant had been the most caring, most human among them, which made it odd, considering how well he worked with Zein Thousandhand. But now they were collating and trying to confirm how many casualties there were during the sudden attack by the Infacer. {How could he allow this? How could he just do that? I thought, I thought he understood…}
Just then, a transmission reached Calvino, and he let out a pleasant chime.
{Uh-huh, a package. From one of my forks. Oh, what’s this? Oh. Oh! Well, Kant, I suspect you might be able to ask Avo himself soon why he did the things that he did.}
{What?} Kant said, surprised.
{And I also suspect that our ‘vague war’ against the Symmetry is about to turn into a formal alliance.}
From the direction of Idheim, the Manta approached, and it was filled with three emissaries—Jaus Avandaer, Zein Thousandhand, and a version of Avo himself, listed as a captured prisoner.
***
—[Jaus Avandaer, The Peacebearer]—
“Why, look now, the voiders, brought low and scattered to chaos and strife.” Zein smiled. But it was a purely predatory expression. There was no enjoyment in her eyes. And there was even little pity in her voice.
The sensors and telemetries of the Manta fed them a scene of destruction. Vast swaths of the Void had been torn asunder by the spreading of the Sunderwilds. Worse than that, there were still countless ships drifting, broken, bleeding their trophies and inner machinery out into the cold, loveless dark.
“So much lost,” Jaus Avandaer said, wearing his mourning on his face. “This… this is a horrible thing to befall old humanity.”
Zein snorted. “Ah, but it is a thing to befall. Their guardians… they were insufficient.”
Jaus regarded his wife. “Perhaps. But who could be sufficient against such an attack? And what a fell thing it was to do, Avo.”
“My original self did what they could, twisted the nature of the Pathborn, but in the end, in the end they were only in between. Still helped the Infacer get across, still made sure that destruction and calamity reigned. Don’t know if the basemind saw this coming, if he expected me to prevail against the Infacer.”
Avo spat bitterness from his very mind. A bitter defeat, a bitter lesson, a bitter learning for his arrogance.
“I was a fool,” Avo said, hissed. “Fool to think that I was going to outplay the Infacer on territory he was familiar with. Fool to think that he was so simple that he had only one means of usurpation.”
“It is a lesson the Infacer teaches us all,” Jaus said. “My old friend, he is, though brilliant, deeply troubled. And now we go forth seeking his old enemies to ensure his destruction.” Jaus fell silent again. “I… This is not the world I hope to see. This is not the path I wish to walk. This is not the end I want.”
“Suppose we best change things, then,” Avo said. “We’ll need you, you to forge a peace with the Voiders. They will not trust me anymore. But you, you represent all Idheim, might still stop there. And Voidwatch will need the planet to endure, to retreat to. And the planet will need the voiders if we have any hope of containing Ambition of securing the ladder in the end. We have enough enemies already. It is time to cement some alliances. Even if I have to play the prisoner.”
“So you say,” Jaus of Andor said. But as he looked out into the Void, a sense of unease swelled through him. “But do they want this alliance? The dream draws close, and the penalty for letting someone else decide your future, it is just enough to risk it all.”
Avo grunted. “Guess we will find out soon. Hope you live up to the legend, Jaus.”
The Savior just smirked slightly. “Guess you will find out soon as well, won’t you, Avo?”
