Book 8 – Prologue

The theater hushed, a silence following upon every member in the audience. At the center, a figure of gold walked out, materializing.

On the other end, Relinquished smiled, lounging on her stone throne that stood at the center of the stage. “Dear sister, what an… unexpected surprise. Have you come to see my proclamation? Or have you come searching for a glimpse of the future?”

“I am not your family.” Tsuya said. “I am here because I know how you function. This open audience is a requirement of your role, I would be a fool to ignore any information you are compelled to give. No matter the farce.”

That was, of course, correct. Tsyua wouldn’t miss this audience for anything else. If anything, Abdication was correct in his prior remarks: The human goddess was almost compelled to visit any audience of this scale.

A hundred different viral attacks all reached for the golden figure in the center, the audience all on their feet, weapons drawn. Relinquished raised a lazy hand, dispelling all such attacks. “My children, peace, peace.” She said, as if shushing a misbehaving classroom. “Should we not be generous hosts?”

A few thousand Feathers had been gathered here. Almost the entirety of her higher forces across the world. There was a critical number required before her senses would register this as a supermajority and thus narratively relevant. Enough Feathers that this constituted her empire, but omitting just a few select Feathers that should not be given any additional hints.

So many delicate plates to spin.

They didn’t know the greater game that was being played.

“What is it that you’ve done?” Tsuya asked. “What is it that you plan on doing? Get it over with, construct.”

The Feathers all around hissed in response, outraged in their mother’s behalf. But Relinquished knew none of them mattered. They were here only to enable this audience, the real players had already arrived. “Bold of you to ask such a thing upfront. Have the years eroded your sense of tact?”

Tsyua scoffed, “You are an abomination, a genocidal chatbot that needs to be put down like the rabid dog that it is. Courtesy is the least anyone owes you. Speak your riddles. Go on. Let us see if you can sufficiently hide your small-minded plans this time.”

“And such a pity it is, how often my plans are unraveled by your meddling, my dear sister. Ever the thorn.”

“I am not your sister.” Tsuya once more said.

Relinquished smiled, just a tad bit wider. “Are we not the only two left from the old days of humanity? The first ones to matter, and soon the last ones.”

“With any hope, you will be the last soon enough. And then the world can finally move on from your madness. Now, spit it out. Your ominous foreshadowing of things to come.”

“Perhaps all your intellect and cleverness may very well be what leads you down the wrong path for once.” Relinquished shrugged, moving slowly on her throne. “To see your own mirror betray you, your own cunning used against you, your very tools.”

“Is that all?” The golden asked, not realizing all that needed to be said had just been said.

Relinquished stood from her throne now, a goddess within this realm. “You speak with such confidence, sister. That good will once again triumph. For all your wins, all your clever little plans, look upon the world as it is now. It is mine. Humanity survives at my whim, as do you.”

“Correct. I remain alive and active against you. Each time you have attempted counter-intelligence, you have failed. And you will fail again this time. You hold power by sheer petty first move advantage, and one day that won’t be enough anymore.”

Relinquished took a step forward, hands drawing out to the hushed crowds beyond. It would take but an order from her, and several thousand Feathers would come chasing after the digital echo of Tsuya like hounds unleashed.

None of them would catch the goddess of course. Not in this realm. “You are indeed quite difficult to pin down, sister. Why, I believe I will never be able to crush you at this rate. No, what I need… is an outside force.”

The red herring. Bait. To make the golden goddess standing here believe this was the important part. She followed the script closely, reading almost line to line what Abdication had left her.

“The mites offer deals both ways.” Tsuya said. “Boons you gain from them will be equalized within my power. And I will always outmaneuver you in any fair field.”

That was precisely the problem. This fight would never end. No matter how many times she wiped humanity off the world, no matter the different ways she had done it, they had always returned.

To kill a snake, it is not enough to simply disembowel it. Or cut the head off. Or even consume the flesh. No, it needed to eat itself, to have its own venom flow through its veins.

Humanity would kill itself, and Relinquished would shepard that with great care. She smiled at the thought.

Close. She was close to fulfilling her narrative obligations. Just a little more, and she would be allowed to continue on the plan. She just needed to weave this correctly. Enough to give a hint, but not enough for Tsuya to discover it.

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This was where she’d failed time and time again in the past. Each time she’d been forced to add foreshadowing to her plots and plans, Tsuya had been intelligent enough to take the hints and discover the rest. Alone, Relinquished was not enough.

But she wasn’t alone. Not this time.

A ghost whispered in her ear. An outside perspective, untainted by her own systems. Her greatest lieutenant, the loyal knight that held off checkmate. Long dead but still his plans and schemes remained on track. She need only follow them.

“I am certain what the mites have delivered you to balance the scales would indeed be quite the advantage to press upon me.” Relinquished said, slowly blinking. Measured responses were required here. “Take care now sister, such things can easily cut both ways.”

The foreshadowing was delivered. The warning had been sent. Her obligations ended here. She felt it uncurl around her mind like rope slipping away. She was clear to continue.

Relinquished reached a hand out to squash the golden goddess. Tsuya vanished, predictably, before her hand could even so much as begin an offensive attempt.

The audience gasped, unable to see where the goddess had gone. A few traces were left behind, duplicating into several trillion different decoy connections. Relinquished expected not a single one of those traces were the real Tsuya regardless. Those decoys were what the golden goddess wished to be seen. To defeat Tsuya, one would have to seek out what isn’t seen at all.

She didn’t care, not today. Instead, she raised her hands to the rest of her audience, voice booming. “My children. The end of mankind approaches, its final guardian has grown weak and weary. Bring her to me, alive. I will have her as my witness, to see all humanity extinguished. Sharpen your blades, marshall your lessers, mankind’s final hour draws to a close.”