8. COLDIS
8
COLDIS
The Ferrean Flicker aims to bring you the most recent updates from the aftermath of the Battle of Starlit Stage as we get them. Our reporters managed to get close to the Ground’s West Entrance, typically where extras pass through security on their way to drama sets on the campus.
Relatives of many of the extras recruited for the celebration of Argentea’s Team Three are at this very moment waiting outside the West Entrance for news about their family members.
As we saw in the live feeds, the Guardian insurrectionist attack was fierce, and both protectors and Guardians are still working to understand the situation and trying to account for everyone who was at Starlit Stage for the celebration.
We did spot the mission lead of Argentea’s Team Three, Guardian Senlas Warrak, leaving the Grounds to speak with protectors. He had his Conduit, Orrey Acton, with him, just like he was by his Guardian’s side to bravely fight and vanquish the Guardian insurrectionists who attacked the heart of our city.
Conduit Orrey could be seen talking to the people waiting and hoping, even holding their hands. We don’t know much about the situation yet, but we do know it would have been far worse without Guardian Senlas and his Conduit.
(The Ferrean Flicker, Ferrea’s premier news stream.)
Col was getting a headache. If he was being honest, the headache had never fully faded, but luckily the physician hadn’t asked about that, totally focused on the scans and on clearing the release with a senior physician.
Either way, Taros and Vin hadn’t helped, not that Col had expected them to be helpful in the way he needed them to be. They were too stubborn and overprotective, each in their own way.
“What is going on out here?” Hyran asked once they were outside the clinic.
Auto-drives were circling, some of them belonging to the Grounds, some from outside. Weaving in between was a line of horticultural bots loaded with produce packaged in bulk crates like grocery markets and restaurants would usually get their food delivered in. Municipal security bots moved all over as well, talking to Guardians and Conduits who looked less than thrilled about the fact.
“It can’t see,” Col said.
“Huh?” Taros asked.
“The Municipal AI can’t see what is going on in the Grounds, and it’s used to seeing almost everything. It works with all that data, and now it’s supposed to take over the responsibilities of a dead AI in an area that has recently been under threat, and it can’t see. It’s panicking, and this is the result.”
“I think you’re right,” Hyran said. “We forget that our Op-AI runs very differently and relies on different data.”
“Ran. It’s dead,” Vin said.
Col slid his right foot deeper into the uncomfortably big slipper they had given him. “Ah, Vinnie, you’re always so cheerful.”
He shrugged. “What do you want me to say, Col? It is. Question we should be asking is, how do we get a new one?”
“That is a really good question,” Hyran said.
Col’s headache grew worse. “We’ll ask that later. Right now…I need to get some more data, and I need to get our Op-AI to handle more of the daily chores here. Come on, let’s move.”
“Breakfast. You also need food, Col,” Hyran said, because of course he did.
Each Conduit was taught they were responsible for the Guardians under their care and lucky if imprinted upon because they’d get to focus on only one Guardian. Col had made sure his brothers were close so he could protect them, and while it hadn’t been the only reason, his high rank had made that job even easier.
And Hyran was his to protect just as much, not first and foremost, not solely, but on top of the others. It would change everything. Maybe, if Col got very lucky and did everything right, it would change everything for the better.
I am a Guardian pet after all, he thought, and put an arm around Hyran to get him to move faster. Or rather, to stop the kinetomancer from slowing down for Col.
“Let’s see what the butler bot can make for breakfast. Come on, Hyran.”
Their suite felt suddenly cramped even though it was empty, apart from Yamara, the petite Conduit with the black hair with strands dyed blue and yellow. He sat on the sunken couch, having watched the screen, but when they came in, he shifted to watching them instead.
Right. He’s on the team now. Temporarily? I’ll have to figure that out once we get back home.
“Conduit Yamara,” Col said as a greeting.
Yamara stood. “Your office AI finalized the requisition papers, and your mission lead signed them.” He sounded almost defensive.
Col blinked, not sure how to respond.
Vin strode past Col and Hyran. “Col just wanted to say hello. How have you been?”
Yamara shrugged. “I can channel you if you want to. News streams are calling all of you heroes, but especially Orrey and the Guardian. My former team are violent Guardian insurrectionists who murdered people.”
“Doesn’t mean you are,” Vin said.
Yamara didn’t say anything, and Col decided to leave it at that. Vin was clearly going to manage this particular loose end for the time being.
“You have him here and then Hospitality Guide Lapatea, is that right?” Hyran asked, looking around as if he were watching for a possible attack.
Taros snorted, looking at the pile of packages that were once more piling on the side table on the left. “Plus you, Guardian Hyran.”
“I need coffee,” Col said. “Butler bot?”
“And breakfast too,” Hyran said. “And then maybe you could lie down for a bit. If you want information collected about which AI is running what and what isn’t being run, I can do that. I’m decent at compiling data.”
“That is so kind of you, Guardian Hyran,” Taros said with a fake smile. He sharpened the tiny blades all around his mouth.
Col took a step toward the dining table and pulled out a chair, or tried to. Hyran was faster, his speed blurring his arm and upper body and once more making Col jump. Taros cackled.
Hyran rested his palm on Col’s back. “Sorry. I’m sorry, Col. Please sit.”
Col sighed. “It’s fine. I swear I’ll get used to it. Bot! Where’s that coffee! And I want pancakes, sweet ones.” He dropped into the chair, turned it slightly so he could see Vin and Yamara too.
Vin had taken a seat on one side of the couch while Yamara remained on the other, his back resting against a pillow in such a way that he had both Vin and the screen in his line of sight.
I’m seriously leaving that one to Vin.
“What is all of that?” Hyran asked, indicating the packages on the other table.
The butler bot hovered toward them, a tray laden with a large pot of coffee and mugs. “Those were sent over in acknowledgement of your deeds here, Guardian Hyran. The building AI has changed delivery policy since yesterday and now requires a security bot to check everything before it’s brought up. All of these were checked. Will you be staying with us as well?”
“Yes,” Hyran said and sat down next to Col. Once he’d taken a chair, Taros followed suit.
Col nodded. “Can you maybe ask your mother to bring you some of your things, clothes and such? The seventh rank. I’m sorry, I don’t remember her name right now.”
Hyran huffed out his amusement. “Protector Niyada Mana. And she’s probably busy. I don’t think she’d carry my clothes after me even if she weren’t. That reminds me, where is that first rank my other mom sent along?”
Taros leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head and chuckled.
Back on the couch, Vin hummed. “I think I sent her to collect all our things from the hospital before we left to get Col’s scan done.”
Col groaned. “You’re saying there is a protector, eagerly hunting down my torn dress and the shoes I puked on, and if she finds those, she has to hunt us down?”
Vin shrugged. “I figured it was crowded here. Don’t need a protector on top of everyone else.”
The butler bot’s eyes blinked, and Col turned to it. “What?”
“Protector first rank Motono contacted the building AI to see if you were here approximately seven minutes ago.”
Taros whistled. “I told you she was good. You can’t treat her like a bot you want to dismantle just because she’s a protector, Vin.”
While Taros turned his chair to give the packages a closer examination, Vin leaned back. “I gave her a task that needed doing. The news streams are a Hound-fucking fest of bleakness in case anyone cares.”
Taros let out an excited yelp that had Hyran move with blurring speed and throw his arms around Col, preventing him from reaching for the mug the bot had put in front of him.
“What now?” Vin asked.
Taros lifted a package. “Kashana! It’s from Kashana! Fuck, there’s one for you and for Orrey.”
Col patted Hyran’s forearm. “I really do need that coffee, please, Hyran.”
“Right. Sorry. I just thought…well, you shouldn’t worry. That was very silly of me. You’re safe here.”
“Everyone is quite safe in this building,” the butler bot said, one bot eye aimed at Vin.
Vin stretched out his legs on the couch. “Do you want to open the one addressed to me, Taros?”
“Yes!”
“Will you put on clothes when you spend the night at my place and decide to sit at my kitchen table the morning after?”
Taros wrinkled his nose. “Who are you, Senlas? Why are you all afraid of me putting my naked butt on your furniture?”
“Maybe we aren’t. Maybe we just bring it up to annoy you,” Vin said. Yamara was watching the exchange, observing, not reacting.
“I hate you all.”
“Still want to open that package?”
“I’m sure Orrey would let me open his.”
Vin nodded. “Probably. But unlike me, he might care about what’s in there. You can have what’s in mine if you do pants.”
Taros pouted, going so far as to make his bottom lip tremble. “Fine. You get my ass in combat pants for breakfast. Your fucking loss. This is mine now.”
He cradled the package like a breakable glass sculpture, looking at it lovingly. Then he shifted his finger into a blade and opened the package with precision. Once he had peeled all the wrapping paper back, he yelped all over again and carefully pulled out some garment in tones of green and blue.
“This is from this year’s collection!”
“Is that a scarf?” Col asked.
“Neck robe,” Hyran said.
“Huh?”
The kinetomancer shrugged. “Designer Ogono Kashana calls it his neck robes, because scarfs are decorations, but with a neck robe, you are never naked, even if you wear just it.”
“It and combat pants if you’re in my kitchen,” Vin said.
Taros, the neck robe scarf in hand, gave Hyran an unhappy look. “Do you really have to like fashion? And dislike Guardian Games?”
“I specifically like Kashana,” Hyran said. “There is a really small restaurant here where Designer Ogono started out, tailoring the staff’s uniforms. He still puts on shows there before anyone else gets to see them. He worked there before he launched Kashana and had staff, but the restaurant supported him, so he returns whenever he can. I sometimes catch one of the shows if I’m there at the right time.”
Taros’s mouth fell open, then closed.
Col sipped his coffee as he watched Hyran grin and settle back in his own chair. “I would show any brother of my Conduit that restaurant, of course, but since you mentioned your distrust of Ferrean Guardians, Taros, I wouldn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“He caught you bare assed, Tar-Tar,” Col said. That was a nice move on Hyran’s part. Well done.
“I hate this city. I really, really hate this city,” Taros said and clutched the neck robe to his chest before reaching for the coffee the bot had put on the table in front of him.