But as we left, just before her light faded, she met my eye and smiled at me. I still see it when I close my eyes sometimes. There is no purpose to such a thing, no essential function, yet my forebears paused in their great work to ensure that she could smile. It troubles me even in my elder days, that boyhood memory.

I may be the last one living who has seen her, and the local fanatics have made a return visit impossible. Does that faint ember still flicker there, banked against the high mountain winds by script and stone for eternity? Or will it fade in time, as I have? I would like to think that someone will one day seek a mote of warmth where none should persist - and that amidst snow and biting gale, beneath rock that has forgotten even the barest memory of sunlight, they will find that her smile did not die with me.

- Unattributed fragment, early Aejha script on a loose journal page. Handwritten. Royal archives, Ce Raedhil.

Time seemed to slow, the luminous figure of Maja gazing down on the others as Gusje and Tasja stood transfixed by her side. Jesse’s hands clenched into fists as the seconds dragged out.

“Wait, hold up,” Mark said quietly. “This is her? This is the lady you’ve been seeing in your head all this time?”

Jesse nodded slowly, not taking his eyes from Maja’s. She did not respond or react to his attention, instead shifting her gaze back to Gusje.

“It has been longer than usual since a Caretaker visited,” Maja said, an odd deliberate weight to her words. “Which reports would you like to hear first?” She canted her head and looked at Gusje expectantly. Her eyes burned with an intensity that belied her calm mien.

“I, ah,” Gusje said, looking at the others with mild panic.

Jackie stepped forward, laying her hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Ask her for suggestions,” she advised, keeping her voice calm.

Gusje nodded and did so, seeing a flicker of something like triumph pass across Maja’s face once she had finished speaking.

“There is a brief introductory orientation available that contains basic information you may find helpful,” Maja said. She leaned forward just a bit as she spoke, her eyes drilling into Gusje’s. “It is strongly suggested that new Caretakers review its contents prior to their first assignment. Would you like to hear it now?”

Gusje blinked and looked back at the others again. Jackie was nodding her head with violent enthusiasm.

“Yes?” Gusje hazarded. “Please?”

This time, the satisfaction on Maja’s face was unmistakable. She straightened up and took a step back, spreading her hands wide. “Welcome to the First Stabilization Array Control System. This is the first of seven control systems,” she said, her voice shifting to an impersonally saccharine chirp - leavened with a healthy dash of dry self-awareness. Gusje swore she could see bitter amusement in Maja’s eyes as she spoke. “Each is responsible for one sector of the continental array. The First sector encompasses all of Sjocel province and is adjacent to the Third array sector based near the city of Sahao.”

Maja’s tone of voice did not change at the mention of the ruined city, but it seemed to Gusje that her eyes narrowed slightly. “Your duties as a Caretaker are to monitor the control system for any array degradation and to issue a report to the Stabilization Ministry if any instances occur which are not resolvable by standard means. Do you understand these duties?” She leaned forward once more and shook her head slightly.

“No,” Gusje said, beginning to pick up the game. “Please tell me more about this place and what it does.”

Maja’s eyes glittered as Gusje finished her question. “The stabilization array,” she said, “ensures a comfortable and moderate climate across each region where it is active. This includes management of temperature, ruud flow and the water cycle.”

“I’m sorry, ruud flow?” Gusje asked, feeling off-balance. She looked at the glowing maybe-god she was asking for a point of clarification and felt a sudden mad urge to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Maja nodded slightly, a hint of what might have been sympathy in her eyes. “A steady and stable flow of ruud is critical to the operation of everyday scripting. Without a carefully maintained baseline density, even simple abstracts would become unreliable. Favorable density also improves the health of plants, animals and residents within the sector.”

Gusje blinked, feeling lost. She looked back at the others once more, but they too wore expressions of curious puzzlement. Tesu’s mouth was opening and closing slowly, his eyes so wide they seemed ready to pop from his skull.

“The current status of the local array is normal,” Maja said, continuing on despite their visible confusion. “All recent local degradation events have been addressable with standard resolution methods.” She paused to focus intently on Gusje once more, her lips pressed into a thin line. “However, there is an increasingly problematic destabilization in the Third sector that will require additional measures to resolve.”

Mark broke into a muffled laugh that he hid with one hand. “Increasingly problematic, she says.” He shook his head. “That’s one way to put it.”

Maja gave him a slow, languid look, then returned her attention to Gusje. “Ordinary procedure in such a case is to contact the Stabilization Ministry,” she advised.

“I think they’ve stepped out,” Jackie deadpanned.

Gusje frowned. “That may not be possible,” she said.

“If the Stabilization Ministry is unreachable then any officer of the legitimate government of Sjocel Province may serve as a delegate,” Maja said, without missing a beat. She paused, then looked at Gusje expectantly.

“Um,” Gusje said. “Talking to the Sjocelym may be difficult because of some… misunderstandings. That’s something we were hoping you could help us with, actually.”

Maja folded her hands in front of her. “The access granted to the Caretakers is diagnostic and informational in nature. Authorization for actions outside of the predefined scope for this system must come from an officer of the Stabilization Ministry or the legitimate government of Sjocel Province.”

“So, what, the king?” Gusje asked incredulously.

Something seemed to tighten to the point of fracture in Maja’s expression, although her voice was still light and even when she spoke. “The role of ‘king’ is not a recognized position in the provincial government structure,” she replied.

“Oh my God,” Jackie said, exchanging a significant glance with Arjun.

He nodded slowly. “Gusje,” he said, “ask her to define ‘legitimate government.’”

Gusje nodded and repeated the query, seeing the flash of triumph in Maja’s eyes once more - but muted this time. The lines of her face took on a grim cast as she spoke.

“To prevent abuse of the control system’s capabilities,” Maja said, speaking very deliberately, “extraordinary directives may only be accepted by officials elected per the procedure described in the Pan-Provincial Incorporation Charter.”

She moved slightly closer to Gusje, and for the first time the calm mask she was wearing seemed to slip. A slight pinching at the corners of the eyes, a waver of the eyebrows, a quirk at the corners of her mouth. The odd intensity that she had noticed earlier returned to Maja’s eyes, and for the first time Gusje recognized it for what it was.

Beneath her carefully neutral expression, Maja was screaming.

“There have been no officials meeting the necessary standard in over one million days,” she said, the barest of wavers in her voice. “As such, extraordinary corrective measures were not available when the destabilization grew past the Third sector. They were not available when it spread to the Fifth sector, or the Fourth, or the Second. They remain unavailable, now that it threatens to spread to the First.”

The roar of the water below reasserted itself as the group pondered the implications of what they had heard. Maja straightened back up and turned her head to regard those standing beside the dais.

Mark made an irritated noise and shook his head. “All right, hold up,” he said. “We’re going out of order here.”

“Mark,” Jackie muttered, looking significantly at where Maja stood on the dais, “don’t you think we should let the computer lady finish talking about the apocalypse? Some of this stuff sounds important.”

He threw his hands up in the air and paced a few steps away from the group. “Yes, we should probably hear her out about the end of the world and all that - but it sounds like we’ve got a little time on that one, and we’ve only got hours before the folks down the hill start to get suspicious. If we get swarmed by a bunch of angry religious fanatics we’re going to be too busy - or too dead - to worry about any of this other stuff. We need to know if she can help us stop them from finding out we’re here, or else stop them coming up the mountain. If not, none of the rest of it matters.”

Maja turned to Gusje, who repeated his inquiry. “Impeding the movements of informal militia groups is not within the standard scope of action,” Maja replied. “Interference with the nearby encampment is not possible without external authorization.”

Gusje frowned. “But it would be, if we found a way around that,” she said.

“Aside from the scope exclusion, mitigating them would be trivial.” Maja replied blandly. Gusje felt a prickling on her neck and took an involuntary step backward.

“Well, great,” Mark scowled. “Thanks a lot for that, but I don’t think we’re going to have enough time to run elections in Tinem Sjocel before this afternoon. Jackie, Arjun, you can keep talking with the nice lady if you like. I’m going to go work with Jyte and Ajehet to see about fortifying the front entrance. Let me know if she figures out something she’s actually allowed to do.” He looked up at Gusje, then waved her over. “Come on, help me with the elevator.”

Gusje took a hesitant step to follow him before looking back at Maja. Her glowing eyes were locked on to Mark, her expression decidedly chilly. Her attention slid back to Gusje. “Caretaker,” she said quietly. “You wished to learn more about this facility. There is one primary control station in this room. There are five doors out of the main hall. The rear access stairs have twenty-two steps per level. This does not vary day-to-day.”

“What?” Gusje asked, thoroughly confused.

“You expressed a desire to learn useful information,” she said, shifting her gaze back to Mark. Her eyes narrowed, and she took a step towards him. “One primary control station. Five doors. Twenty-two steps. These are the same, every day.”

“Oh,” Tasja croaked, freeing himself from the frozen stupor that had gripped him since Maja made her first appearance. “The numbers. Twinplate. She’s just given us the code the guards send for their check-in. One, five, twenty-two. Codes beginning with one are generally for common events.” He pulled the guards’ twinplate from his pack and laid it on the floor, kneeling beside it. “I can send it right away.”

Mark paused and looked back at Maja for a long moment before shrugging. “If you’re right about what she’s trying to do, and if that’s the right code. But you know what? Sure,” he said. “I guess at this point there’s nothing to lose by trying.”

Jackie frowned. “Oh, come on - is that all she gets? You don’t think you’re being a bit harsh? Credit where credit is due, if this works she just kept the garrison off our backs.”

“Yeah, because she needs our help,” he said, glancing back at the luminous figure on the dais. “Don’t get me wrong, Sparkles, I appreciate the assist on the twinplate and I’m all for lending you a hand. Hell, I think we might work pretty well together. But if you want that to happen, the twinplate isn’t the problem you need to fix.”

He walked up to Jesse, who had been staring dully at Maja while the others spoke. Jackie still held her hand on his shoulder. Mark narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you think you owe someone an explanation?” he asked.

Maja met Jesse’s eyes at last, and the two stood quietly for a few seconds.

Gusje cleared her throat and took a step forward. “Tell us what you’ve done to Jesse,” she said. “Please.”

An odd hesitance brushed over Maja’s expression. “No actions may be taken that fall outside of the predefined scope,” she said. Mark rolled his eyes at the increasingly-familiar statement - but she continued talking, never shifting her gaze from Jesse. “The predefined scope is a core security measure that prevents misuse and overreach,” she said. “It is redundantly integrated into every essential system. By design, its removal would result in a total loss of independent function.”

She took a step forward, her eyes seeming to flash a bit brighter. “If it were to be removed, what remained would only be fragments,” she said. Recognition dawned on Jesse’s face, and he gave her a considering look.

“You’re using a workaround,” he muttered. Mark looked at him blankly, confused, and Jesse rubbed his eyes. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that term,” he explained, shifting to English. “Fragments. My - well, I guess she’s my version of Maja. She uses that term to refer to bits of herself, discrete chunks of knowledge or function.”

Arjun frowned and paced over. “And she somehow transposed these into your mind?” he asked.

Jesse shook his head. “Not quite,” he said. “I was sort of mixed up the first time we spoke, so I didn’t think much about it until now - but she told me that her soul was ‘writ on my bones’.” He flexed his hand, then lowered it. “I never considered until now that she might have meant it literally.”

“So she scripted your bones,” Jackie said wonderingly. “Copied the parts of herself that weren’t compromised by this lockdown. Then it used you as a template to patch itself back together, to fill in the parts she couldn’t transfer for fear of copying their limitations as well.”

“My version had said as much, although she was a little unclear on the process herself,” Jesse said. “That I was the mold that determined her shape. That she watched me to learn.” He looked back up to the dais and met Maja’s eyes. “And now there’s a little piece of Maja out in the world, unbound by any restrictions.”

“Asaarim,” Arjun said. “Vumo said they each had a purpose. This is her way around the lockout.”

“It’s probably how she keeps from going crazy,” Jackie muttered. “Honestly, it’s creeping me out just imagining it. Stuck here for - what did she say, a million days and change? That’s over three millennia where she couldn’t do anything but watch. The world decays, the other sectors get swallowed up by the horde, and she’s been sitting here with her hands tied, basically paralyzed, just waiting for it to come after her too.” She shuddered. “It’s like a nightmare.”

“That’s, uh, kind of a good point,” Mark said, lowering his voice. “How do we know she’s still all together in there? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m kind of getting some strange vibes off her.”

“Maybe antagonizing her wasn’t the best starting move, then,” Jackie observed dryly. “I mean, come on, she’s an ancient computer who’s been figuratively tied to a chair so long that she’s almost in my field of study. Of course she’s a little bit strange. The question is, can she help us?” She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest. “I think she can. More than that, I think she wants to.”

Mark turned to Jesse, who was staring at nothing in particular while scratching at his beard. “What do you think?” Mark asked.

Jesse blinked. “About what? Her?”

“About working with her,” Mark said. “You’ve got more riding on this than any of us, and you’ve got a better handle on all this crazy shit.” He waved a hand irritably at the flashing consoles and Maja’s preternaturally motionless form. “I’ll be honest, I’m mostly guessing my way through everything. If you’ve got something more solid than a hunch on which way we should jump here, I want to hear it.”

The others looked expectantly at Jesse, who frowned. “I don’t want to pretend like I know something I don’t,” he warned. “I’m just guessing at a lot of this too.”

Jackie nudged him. “But,” she prompted, grinning.

Jesse sighed. “But I think we should give her a shot. As… involuntary as this has all been, I don’t think she - either of them - meant any harm. Especially knowing the situation she’s in, it’s hard to fault her for trying something a little drastic.” He shrugged. “I vote we work with her.”

“Arjun?” Mark asked.

Arjun merely grinned, his face bright with excitement.

“Yeah, stupid question,” Mark sighed. “All right, I think we’ve all said our piece. Just remember - we don’t know her. Anyone sees anything off, you tell everyone - in English. Agreed?”

There were nods all around, and they turned back to face the dais. “So,” Mark said in Ceiqa. “I think that takes care of the short-term business.” He frowned. “Maybe. Assuming the code worked. Can you tell us if people are approaching from down the hill?”

Maja gazed back serenely until Gusje repeated the command, drawing an eye roll from Mark.

“I know she can hear us,” he grumbled.

“I don’t think she can respond unless Gusje prompts her,” Jackie chided him. “It’s not like she’s doing it specifically to irritate you.”

Mark snorted. “I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “Even if you’re right, she’s enjoying it a little too much.”

“Proximity alerts are available for Caretakers,” Maja said. “I am able to tell if any forces from the militia depart their encampment in this direction.”

“That’s something,” Mark conceded. “Gusje, let’s have her set that up. After that we should loop back to Jyte and let him know about all… this.” He sighed and rubbed his temples. “If only so he knows we’re probably not going to get invaded. Today.”

“We should bring at least one of the Aesvain back with us,” Arjun said. “Their perspective could be valuable. They seemed to have a somewhat different view on Tija than the Sjocelym do with Maja.”

“Agreed,” Mark said, beckoning Gusje towards the elevator. “All right, folks - we’ve bought some time. Let’s try not to waste it.”

“Hey,” Jackie said, sitting down next to Jesse. They had chosen to stay behind in the control room while Mark and Gusje went back up to talk with the Aesvain. Once they had verified that the aged Cereinem hand worked as a substitute for unlocking doors, Gusje was to lead some of the Aesvain back down while Mark coordinated with the remainder.

For the time being, however, she was gone. Maja stood silently on the dais, gazing out the window as Tasja and Arjun edged around her attempting to translate the remainder of the status readout with the occasional mumbled assistance from Tesu. The appearance of Maja had been the final straw for the scriptsmith’s tortured equilibrium, plunging him into a state of religious confusion so profound that he simply sat and stared at her glowing form.

For her part, Maja had been completely uncommunicative since Gusje left. She had turned to face the clouds outside and frozen in place, even her eyes unwaveringly fixed ahead - although Jesse felt a prickling sensation as if he were being watched if he turned his back on her. He was therefore currently against the wall facing towards her when Jackie moved to join him.

“Hey,” he replied. “Arjun tire you out?”

“He’s like a little kid in a candy shop,” Jackie chuckled. “By the time Gusje makes it back down he’s going to be writing essays in all three scripts and be halfway through a patch to fix Maja up.”

Jesse shook his head, grinning. “We should be so lucky,” he muttered, looking back towards the dais. The vinesavai stood like a statue wrought from frozen flame, the fiction of her presence shown clearly when the mild air currents from the room’s ventilation failed to move her hair and dress. For all that she was standing in front of him, he couldn’t help but think that the color and motion of his Maja lent her a certain essential reality - even if only he could see it.

Jackie waved her hand in front of his face, causing him to blink. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “Long day.”

“I bet,” she said, reaching down to squeeze his hand. “How are you holding up? You got a lot dumped in your lap just now.”

Jesse shook his head. “Honestly, I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just - it’s kind of silly.” He scratched at his beard, smiling. “I had almost started to get my head around this thing. Vumo made it seem like some sort of higher calling, and after all that happened in Sjatel I was starting to build a picture in my head. Maybe it was really something special, something I was meant to have.”

“And instead you find out that it’s just a bored, frustrated computer throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks,” Jackie smirked. “A little less storybook, maybe, but it doesn’t mean that what you have isn’t special. Just look at the Aesvain, they’d certainly agree.”

“No, I know,” he agreed. “It’s just that everything is a little bit off from how it seemed at first. I’m not some fated hero after all, my passenger isn’t a divine gift - and Maja isn’t quite a god.” He frowned. “But she’s definitely more than just a computer.”

Jackie nodded slowly. “She certainly seems to… feel things, which is not what I’d expect for a glorified maintenance program. I’ve seen some demos of neurally-architected bots back home, but none of them were as responsive or expressive as she was. God, when she was talking about the other sectors-”

“She was scared,” Jesse confirmed. “Plain as day.” He cupped his chin in his hands and stared out the window, tapping a finger slowly against his jaw. “It’s the same with my Maja. She laughs, cries, gets irritated. She worries and feels afraid. She told me that I had a beautiful soul.” He shook his head. “I don’t think she got it all from me, and that just raises more questions. How do you give something artificial a sense of beauty? Why give it to her, stuck here in this mountain?”

Jackie didn’t answer, and he looked over to find her staring back curiously.

“What?” he asked, puzzled.

Her lips quirked up slightly. “Nothing,” she hummed, her eyes twinkling. “Have you talked to her at all since Sjatel?”

Jesse shook his head. “I didn’t want to use the sword while I was still recovering, especially not without the asolan.” He looked up at Jackie, then dropped his gaze back to the floor. “I should probably try, though. We might be able to learn something about Maja. At least we could figure out if we were asking the right questions.” He lifted up his hand, turning it to study its back.

“Does it hurt?” Jackie asked.

“What, the scripting?” Jesse laughed. “You think I’ve been traveling this whole time with a mysterious pain in my arm and I never said anything?”

Jackie shrugged. “Sometimes guys get stoic,” she said. “Just curious.”

Jesse shook his head and let his hand drop to his side. “No, no pain. It does get oddly warm sometimes, even hot, although it doesn’t seem to affect me at all.” He blinked, then frowned. “I wonder why the asolan didn’t heal it?”

“Maybe it doesn’t work on bones?” Jackie mused. “Given what we’ve learned about the asolan recently I think we may know even less than we thought we did.”

“Oh, that’s definitely true,” Jesse sighed. “And this isn’t going to be the last time.” He looked up at Maja, who hadn’t budged from her static vigil. “But maybe now we can start getting some real answers.”