Book 8 – Chapter 66 – Negotiations with a Weasel

“Winterscar.” To’Avalis started the chat like a perfect gentleman.

Considering we had taken over his body, killed him a few times over now, with Wrath’s kills included, and generally broke down his team into atoms, he could have sounded a lot more pissed than what he sounded like right now.

I answered him back with all the due respect to an adversary that’s been constantly at my throat for the past few months now: “Avalis, old buddy, how’s it hanging?”

On my heads up display, I saw the Icon sending me a text message: Attempt to recover some intelligence on his movements. That he has contacted you now as the machine army is collecting for a push on this citadel means he is here in relation with these movements.

The Icon had been planning the defense all around the world, and that also meant she was preparing the defenses here. It felt nice to have our own golden age AI on our side to fight back with. She was getting better by the minute, actual combat experience from the past nine hours all over the world had seriously sharpened her tactical skills.

I swapped the channel for a moment, “Don’t think he’ll be dumb enough to reveal his plans, but I’ll give it my best shot. But knowing him, I’ve got my bets that he’s after his old body. Maybe he doesn’t think it’ll survive this fight and wants it back before we get a few scratches on it. Could get some good concessions out of him for that.”

He did have some issue with To’Aacar’s programming deep within his currently looted shell, according to what Wrath told me. Trying to inhabit someone else’s hardware was not quite the seamless thing for machines.

“Any additional information can be used, Mister Winterscar. I will be monitoring the line.”

I hummed, and swapped back to Avalis. “So, any exciting plans this weekend?”

“Spare me your jokes.” He answered back, rather rudely I might add. “I’ve been handed supreme authority over the machine empire in crushing the little hovel you call a fortress until you are chased out of it.”

Well, now the Icon and I both know who was in charge of today’s entertainment. “Oh, congratulations on the promotion. Must have had a lot of solid wins under your belt to climb up that high. I thought you were contacting me to try and wiggle your body back with some well worded begging and pleading.”

That definitely got under his skin. I could tell just from the tone in his voice.

“Mother knows I am the only Feather who’s survived repeated encounters against you. I am the best equipped to lead an assault with you stationed at the heart. You shouldn’t be surprised I was given this task, Winterscar. I am more insulted you thought I wouldn’t.”

“Well, last time I saw you, you were labled as unneeded, and scheduled on the chopping block. Which, knowing Relinquished, could be a lot more literal than just the human saying goes. A public execution for fun seems right up her method of operation. So to see you now in charge of just about everything… something change? You fixed up that winning smile on To’Aacar’s face and slipped a nice bit of bribery? I know your face must have been pretty hard to fix, good work. Don’t worry, I can keep a secret.”

“Nothing changed and your insults remain ineffective. I have one more chance to bring you to heel. I will not fail that. That. Is. All. I am here to reduce possible difficulty, despite predicting your cooperation in all this comes at a very low chance.”

Another text arrived from the Icon. Voice modulations are erratic. No filters have been detected. He may be unstable and less shackled than prior encounters. Attempt to convert into a double agent?

That’s going to be a tough one to swing, but my head came up with a possible direction: Survival.

To’Avalis, above all other things, was a survivalist. I just didn’t know if his need to stay alive past all of this was higher than his base programming to remain loyal. Time to find out. “I can applaud the work ethic and blind optimism that you’ll pull a win. Sure worked all the other times you came swinging for me. Sounds more like you’re being thrown to the wolves.”

“Your implications fall on deaf ears.”

“Let me be more direct with you then. Maybe consider doing what To’Sefit did and swap sides? Wrath bakes cookies on friday and we’ve been talking about setting up bingo nights on saturday. Could be fun on team Humanity.”

“No.”

That might be on me, I’m not exactly being very convincing with my words here despite the Icon’s well reasoned request.

That said, I’m not exactly surprised my good intentions have once more failed me, which meant I should just follow my bad intentions more often: “We seem to be at an impasse then here, because I’ve got more than enough firepower to eradicate you if you show your face around this biome. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing you again. That’s a threat by the way.”

Avalis ignored me completely. “Step outside the citadel, and I will redirect the entirety of this army away from your friends and family.”

“That’s what you called me out here for? I thought you were a little smarter with your deals.”

“I wasn’t done. I will lead your entire clan into the location I planned to use myself to survive the pale lady’s notice. I guarantee to directly protect and safeguard all current living members of your clan and leave all required teachings and instructions for their descendants to continue safeguarding themselves under their own skill and ability. Your deathless is an exception as he will never die, I offer fifty years of coverage for him in specific.”

Ah, there’s the good old Avalis I remembered. “Let me guess, in exchange for all this quite generous and purely altruistic change of heart on your end, you want me to just throw my blade and weapon down and die in a ditch somewhere?”

“No. I do not ask that you even surrender. Fight to your last breath, or escape further into the world, do as you will. So long as you leave the citadel behind, I will consider your part of this contract complete and will start the process on my end. You may even leave with as many soldiers as you wish to waste, my offer is strictly for you and Urs to leave your current location. Reducing the difficulty in defeating you even slightly is perfectly worth spending a few decades safeguarding some random humans. Time is nothing to the immortal, and I remain neutral about humanity’s eradication or survival. On the other end, you guarantee the survival of your clan in taking this offer.”

That did tell me the Citadel and the defenses here were going to be a problem for him, if all he wanted was for me to step out. “I’m sensing another catch here.”

“I offer this deal here and now, and once this communication between us ends, there will be no other negotiations allowed. Make your bargains now, Winterscar. I am the only machine your kind will ever be able to negotiate with. Do not waste this chance.”

“I’m much more one of those ‘winner takes all’ type of guy, you know what I’m saying? Wrath would call me greedy. Plus, seems like with the end of the world happening right now, I’d rather just go all-in. But I’m not an unreasonable person, what are you offering in exchange for not completely killing you when I do see your face around these parts?”

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“You will come to regret this.”

“Will I? See, the neat thing about dying in a blaze of glory, is that I can’t really regret anything when I’m dead. Don’t worry, you’ll understand first hand yourself soon enough if you keep going in this direction.”

There was a deep sigh on the other end, of someone who’s plans just refused to work out for him.

“I will make one last attempt. The Pale Lady wants you and Urs. All other humans are side objectives that she does not care for. You could save them here and now. Are you willing to throw away a guaranteed chance of their survival on a theoretically uncertain victory?”

“And here’s the difference between us Avalis. I like to gamble. But are you willing to take the gamble on your end? If I catch you, I’ll kill you just the same as you want to kill me. This is your last chance to make a deal for your own life here. Swap sides or run off to hide from Relinquished, and I’m not going to come chasing after you once this is all said and done. You already have a little sanctuary setup to hide from her, use it.”

“Not possible for my own use. The location remains hidden from her sight, but I do not. I have the unity fractal in my chassis, and I’ve seen what Mother has done to Feathers she preferred over me already. Not a single one of them was left alive. And I would have been equally gutted if not for my tenuous connection with you in the one arena she’s compelled to follow.”

“Right, right. After us fighting a few times, you’re the closest thing to my nemesis that there is. Here’s another way to think about it: Doesn’t that mean that only I can kill you? If Relinquished squashes you, it’s ending your story early without any real resolution. Think of it from her point of view, she’s throwing you at me to either see you killed or get one more shot at me. We could work this angle out together. Maybe you retreat to your sanctuary and start a training montage on your end to get powerful enough to fight me, even if we both know that’s completely doomed from the start. I’m too good looking to be killed.”

Avalis was a smart Feather. I had no doubts he’d already done his due diligence with how Relinquished operated. Wrath had discovered her trove of romance and epics directly in the machine archives for a reason. All of that was what Relinquished was trained on.