24. Plotweaver #2
I wanted to eat his teeth.
“To talk,” Naoma said. “Candidly.”
He laughed, fear starting to shake his voice. “About what?“ Go ahead and ask! You’ve cleared the room so we might as well open it up!”
“Can you safely dock your body here?”
He glared at her.
She smirked. “I want to speak to the real you. A projector would be nice as well. How about your throne room?”
I glanced her way, wondering what she had gathered that I had missed, but settled with trusting her. She bit the air. I nodded.
“We can wait,” she said.
I shook my head. She knew I didn’t want her to see my least favorite part about me, despite the pleasure I took in it.
“It’s fine.”
I sighed, then spoke to my orca. “You can go now.” I kept my hand on her to understand her words through our light connection. My fingers were shaking.
“I want to stay with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.”
I turned my thoughts to Zhu. Did I break her?
“I do not believe so. If anything, Zhou broke her into cognitive captivity. You’ve liberated her.”
What am I supposed to do now?
“Perhaps one of your Luxists associates has a lake to give shelter to such a creature.”
Most are as polluted as the black ocean.
“Petya!” Naoma said.
“A problem for later. Your mate needs you.”
Another problem to add to David.
“Who told you that I–”
Naoma cut Zhou off. “We’ll talk later.”
I told the orca to lower me to the ground. “Don’t think less of me because of what you see,” I told her, though I doubted she would think of me poorly as an indelicate predator herself.
I began with the closest Eunuch. Reserved behavior turned to voracious brutality the moment I touched the unblemished enamel beneath the Eunuch’s mask.
I wept. I was not afraid to admit how weak I became at the jarring euphoria of feeding not only after a taxing battle, but after an ascending transformation that demanded more light from my body than from anything before.
Just as with any resource, the more powerful the light, or antilight in this circumstance, the more costly it was.
Their teeth were perfect. The standard of a violet elite’s dental perfection was raised to the next level.
Without blemish or rot, these servants held more than their obedience to a higher degree.
Unlike the other elites who bleached their teeth with all manners of light-based treatment and chemicals that damaged the delicate shell of the tooth, these were pure and natural without the taint of neglect.
A true rarity that made my patience all the more worthwhile.
I moved to the next corpse, then to the third. My mental clarity returned with all the associated repercussions of a burdened conscience.
I finished with rich molars. There was nothing quite like the taste of the richest part of the human morsels to soothe my billowing hatred. This time it wasn’t directed at me, but at Zhou and these people who took their blind devotees and treated them like vermin for entertainment.
A sense of justice was the greatest spice I could ask for.
I stood, wiped my mouth, and looked at Zhou.
He glared, his lip turned up in disgust as he said, “You’re just as vile as I imagined.”
I ignored his poor attempt at maintaining composure and turned to Naoma.
“Bring your new friend,” she said. “We might need to clear out the hall some more on the way to the throne room.”
I nodded. “Stay close to him like I’m making you both lead me somewhere. If we can save your reputation any more, I want to.”
Zhou laughed at her. “Like you’re getting away without your part being reveal–”
She slapped him. “You’ve covered up worse, I’m sure. Nobody talks about what happens here anyway, right?”
He started to grin again. Her hand glowed white as she slapped him again.
“Zeg!” he cried out and clutched her handprint that had branded his cheek.
“Light bless whoever decided it was a good idea to let you ands feel pain.”
“What?” I guffawed.
She nodded. “We’ll get to that.”
“You know nothing, Neon Idol.”
Her hand glowed as she readied another strike. “Then you can help me with that.
“Do you have any light-infused handcuffs, Zhou?” I asked. “I saw plenty of kinky guk going on.
“Don’t worry. I’ll obey.”
“I’m sure,” Naoma said.
“Let me try something.” I worked my way back onto the orca’s back. I commanded her to extend her tentacles and wrap one around Zhou. “Will this work?”
Naoma nodded. “Me next. Not as tight, please.”
“Right.” I did as she requested, then lifted them both up a few inches so I didn’t have to walk behind them at a drudging pace.
We cleared the first floor with no problem and the capacious stairwell was wide enough to only cause a little damage to the railings and hanging tapestries.
The orca rammed her chrome-ended tail into the wall for extra measure. Feeling relieved that she was acting somewhat of her own accord, I didn’t say a thing.
A few more Eunuchs tried to stop us on our way to the throne room.
Those who did not stand down when I threatened Zhou with a tentacle to the head were easy to slay.
The other elites fled as we made our way to the throne room.
Rather than break through the doorway, the orca let us down and faced back down the hall to stop anyone who thought they might have a chance at interrupting our interrogation.
“Dock.” Naoma pointed to Zhou’s throne. He was still standing after the orca had tossed him across the room while she let Naoma down as if she were a flower.
He grumbled and worked his way towards the throne. As he sat, I noticed a faint pulse of violet light everywhere his body touched the forgery of ancient Arabasian royal decor.
I ran to Naoma’s side.
“I noticed that when we first came in,” she said. “That light isn’t for show and there weren’t any viable mods that pulsed while being charged.”
“What if he has something under his clothes? And there are plenty of subdermal mods.”
“That’s what I thought. After he took you out I wanted a closer look to see what kind of mods we might be up against.” She glared at Zhou. “This shac probably thought me brushing up on him was sincere.”
Zhou smirked. “You’ve been programmed to do worse. Tell me, when did you break out of the cognitive shell?”
“All it took was Reef to push me far enough to break it. I assume that was your doing, wasn’t it?”
“Finish the seat thing first,” I said.
She looked back at me. “I got a closer look at his seat. I didn’t need to search for hidden mods.
He was one. We used those same charging docks for my concert backup dancers.
Reef didn’t want people to know we were using artificial humans.
While they had the lumens to employ real people, Anton didn’t trust humans to do the job.
Those docks are meant to appear like your standard mod and tech chargers, but there is a distinct film to that light that penetrates deep into the user’s body. ”
I looked at Zhou’s seat and pushed him aside to see where the light was emanating. “I don’t see any difference.”
She pointed at her eyes. “Most people can’t see the difference. They programmed my neurospace to see the difference because, after all, they were my dancers.”
I nodded, continuing to stare at the seat despite no apparent sign of concern.
I had almost forgotten how common mod and tech chagrin was through beds and chairs.
Since gaining my Bite, all my light came through teeth and–from what I understood–my Gui.
With the other Imps with me all the time, it was easy to forget what had become a necessity for so many people.
“Why do I never see you dock to charge your tech?”
She shrugged. “I never have.”
We both looked at Zhou, though Naoma was the one to speak. “Back to the cognitive block, barrier, or whatever you want to call it. Did you place that on me?”
“I heard you talking to her about her past on the way to the lake,” I said.
“Oh, Naoma, your history is such a mess.” He laughed. It lacked the confidence he had spoken with before his palace came crashing down. “How did Nichley lead you here?”
I almost said, “He didn’t,” but figured it was best to withhold as much as possible. Even if he survived, I was sure he could relay some information to the other Beacons.
Logic hit me.
I hopped into my neurospace.
Petya: I need to place a neuronet block on Zhou.
Ralia: Baaaabe! You actually got him! Ooooh, I’m so proud of you two.
Petya: Now.
Ralia: I plug. Give me a moment to get it to you. Initiate a contact exchange and it’ll keep him out.
Petya: For how long?
Ralia: How long do you want? Are you killing him?
Petya: Not sure if we can. He’s an and.
Ralia: Zeg, really? Well, I’ll give you one with an infinite lock, but we can unlock it back here if you need. If he’s an and, he should have access to the building’s network so we can shut off all the security and such.
Petya: You want me to drag him back there?
Ralia: Finish your interrogation, then we can chat.
Petya: Pulse.
Ralia: Check your notifications. It should be in there.
Petya: Beef2-brothel-bash The zeg is that?
Ralia: Something bold and recognizable so you don’t zeg it up and give him the wrong files.
Petya: Why would I give him something else?
Ralia: I’m sending another.
Petya: Ral-and-pet-fun-date? This one?
Ralia: Yup.
Petya: What is it?
Ralia: A calibration drive. It’ll help realign your mind with your half that was in the neurocore.
Petya: We’re done?
Ralia: Yup. Don’t run it until you’re done with Zhou. It’s a lot to process.
Petya: In a good way?
Ralia: I think so. We’ll see.
Petya: Pulse. Thanks again.
Ralia: Love yah, babe.
Naoma and Zhou were looking at me when I exited my neurospace. I hadn’t heard much conversing while I was focused on the messages but was sure there was something said.
“Are we going to talk now or what?” Zhou asked.
Naoma and I shared a conversation only our eyes could speak. It was simple and didn’t ask questions. It was the mere understanding of “I’ve got something important and I’ll tell you later.” She nodded.
I approached bim. “Yes.”