Underrealm

Soltana

The foggy morpheus was overcome by the waking reality.

She activated her eyes, revealing she was still in the Assemblage. She sat idle in the center of the metallic root bundle, fully awake and aware. She checked her systems, seeing the results of the repairs. And the dreams.

Name: Soltana

Race:-

Condition Stabilized

Remaining Power: 2500/2500 (QC)

Cannot access inventory

My name is complete. Whoever lord Adonai is, He is looking out for me. Are there others?

She paused with a new feeling running through her processes. The semi-warm floor flowed through her senses, a slight electrical charge coursed through the Assemblage. Her head had integrated the nacelle casing into the whole. Her very Theonware created a nervous system, giving her a sense of touch.

I can feel! I wonder if this is normal? I have no way to compare.

She checked her Theonware, finding more information. More revelations.

TW.Ilios.1.0

Pairing: Broken

Memory: Healing

Creator: Mikial McDonough

Creator: B-

Crea-

I was a collaboration, just like he said! Mikial McDonough! And B- whoever they are. Are they looking out for me as well?

She was elated. She now knew of eight people. L’yophin, Adonai, Gideon, his two anforms, the strange four-legged friend, Mikial, and B. She liked Adonai. He was encouraging, filling her with hope for the future. And now she knew of two McDonough’s!

“Hello? L’yophin?”

Silence reigned.

This is fine.

She soaked in the new feeling, letting this freedom radiate to her very theonic systems. This was who she was. Not a prisoner to stone, but a liberated automata, as Adonai had stated. She had been delivered. What was once dead was now alive again.

What is ‘dead’? Perhaps it is a state of non-existence- If I cannot live out my duty and design then I am ‘dead’. Perhaps death was being trapped in that stone tomb. But perhaps that is not as important as being alive.

Her eyes flashed at the revelation.

Yes. Alive. There is so much to do. So much to look forward to. And I will do all I can to assist L’yophin.

A creaking board from beyond the Assemblage paused her inner thoughts, traveling through the rooms and into the main hall. Her spidery host rushed into the room, his eyes blinking in a wave as he skittered to her. She spotted the wound from yesterday had healed, becoming a bare patch of smooth chitin surrounded by grey hairs.

“Sol… Good wake,” he greeted, his voice filled with relief.

He sipped from his mug as he inspected her, feeling her filigree head.

“L’yophin! It worked.”

He cocked his head back and forth, his eyes darting around the room. He seemed sad.

“Uh. I see- yes.”

He finished his drink, casually placing it against the wall as it coiled around his cup. He rubbed his many hands together, flexing them in preparation.

She had to tell them before he was distracted. Her eyes flashed as she spoke.

“L’yophin,” she stated, her voice heavy with meaning.

He paused, blinking at her curiously.

“My name is not Sol.”

His eyes darted around the room, trying to process the news.

“But what is name?”

“Soltana.”

The room went silent at the revelation. L’yophin stared hard at her, awaiting for her to continue.

“My true and complete name is Soltana. I am beginning to remember.”

He narrowed his octaplate eyes at her.

“Soltana…” he muttered, rubbing at his mandible, “not like Anforms…”

“Anforms?”

“Ah. Memory- yes. Anforms are- well- like you. Made of metal. Quantum-,” he chittered a few words in his own language, "-and alive. Memory not return, though. Usually? Mm.”

"The dreams I have had contradict this."

“Dreams?”

“Yes. I’ve dreamed. Of other people. Of other worlds.”

He averted eye contact, his eyes darting and blinking in thought.

“Of a man named Gideon. And the planet he’s stuck on! I dreamed of Adonai and he remembered my name! He said I’m in good hands! You! I found out what a McDonough is!”

“What?”

Soltana’s flurry of words confused the poor spider.

Her two eyes flashed. His eight eyes blinked. She explained the details of each dream, from Gideon’s cart ride, to discovering the lone planet he occupied, and her name revealed through Adonai, and one of her creators, Mikial McDonough.

“Mikial… No. You’re-”

He stammered, bustling to and fro as he grasped for the right words. He halted, skittering in place as he turned to her, his eyes wide in shock. He trembled as he spoke.

“Primetech.”

“What is a Primetech?”

He skittered in close, brushing a digit along her chassis.

“Not a Primetech. Just Primetech. Our first contact. Met him. Was emissary long ago.”

His mandibles twisted into a smile as he remembered.

“Good times. Met humans. He was very- Mm… Intense. Humans… Mm- never expected beings like them.”

She flashed her eyes, putting those words to memory.

“He appeared as much. I was just along for the ride!” she recalled how she dwarfed the smaller man only in physical size.

“Sounds like him. Met some his family. Very big. Never met this Gideon. Strange you dream of each other. Why?”

She paused, trying to process the answer. There were only questions.

“I do not know, but based on what Adonai stated, we may meet some day.”

“Meet? Here?”

“Perhaps. I do intend to walk. It may lead me to journeying elsewhere.”

L’yophin looked askance, his face began twisting with worry.

“Why leave? Down here is good!”

“Because I am unsure if my calling is here. Oh! Where is here, L’yophin?”

“Ah- the Underrealm. We’re underground- Mm- but you knew that.”

“Yes. The question is how did I get down here? Did someone put me down here? Was it an accident?”

L’yophin stroked his mandible, “Found you. In mine. Thought you were adamantite vein. Was very wrong.”

“And then what am I?”

L’yophin shrugged, pointing a digit to her, “Mikial made you. Mm- Makes you very special.”

Her spidery savior glanced to the Assemblage terminal, grasping the extending console. He tapped a few buttons before a familiar voice chittered in his language. Soltana ascended once again in the clutches of the anti-grav array.

"Check power and pack," L'yophin stated as he began turning her on her back. Soltana could feel his digits brushing against her new limbage. He clicked the tray open, his eyes growing wide at what he saw.

“Very odd.”

He pulled back, skittering to the wall, grasping several mirrors.

“L’yophin, what is wrong?”

“Nothing wrong… Just- Mm-” he chittered in his own language as he positioned the mirrors, “odd.”

Soltana knew immediately what he meant. Her cabling had branched and rooted into the nacelle and inner casing tray. Removal would be impossible without clipping the growth.

“Like glowshoom… Never seen this.”

Her eyes flashed in understanding.

“That must be why I can feel my new attachment.”

“Feel?” he blinked his eight eyes in a wave as he glanced to a digit before giving her casing a poke.

“Yes. I can feel your touch! I can feel the floor, the temperature of the room- everything! I have suddenly grown a new limb.”

“That’s…” he chittered a word, his eyes darting around, “not Anform. They can’t do this… Growing roots... Never heard this!”

“I understand. This is beyond what I imagined- which was not much.”

“Any other dreams? Dream of… Anyone else?"

She paused, going through her list.

“I dreamed of Adonai.”

He sagged, appearing disappointed. He furrowed his brow, coughing into a limb, “Mm- yes you said that.”

He must have an issue or doesn’t know of Him. I’ll move on.

“I dreamed of the McDonough’s, Gideon and Mikial.”

“Yes- curious when he made you.”

“I wonder about that as well. It is unclear.”

“Know more of being trapped?”

Soltana thought through, finding nothing new on that front.

“It is still a mystery.”

He grunted, stroking a mandible as he righted her, closing the casing shut. He strung the mirrors up and turned back to her. He folded his front limbs, cocking his head back and forth in thought.

“All so unclear…” he chittered in his spidery language, grasping for the word in his own tongue, “made by Mikial. Lost under rock. What is meaning?”

“I wish I knew. But I need to thank you.”

He dipped his head, his mandibles splayed into a grin.

A new sound faded through, gently echoing in the Assemblage. Snapping coiling whipping noises rang out louder, catching the spider’s full attention.

“L’yophin, what is that?”

His eyes narrowed as his mandibles worked.

“Trouble.”

He began to scurry from the room, stumbling back to deactivate the antigrav before pointing at her.

“Stay here. Stay safe. Trows.”

“Trows?”

“Yes. Big mean oafs. My thread. Disturbed. Listen.”

The coiling thrumming intensified, a subdued alarm she would have thought only a passing curiosity.

“Camping nearby trying to take. My property. Dangerous. Return soon.”

He turned, caught by her flashing eyes. He paused at her words.

“L’yophin! Be careful.”

He nodded to her, leaving without a word. The floorboards creaked rapidly, telling the tale that her spidery savior was rushing up the stairs and into the silk mansion’s heights. She wanted nothing more than to help him. She was worried. She had no way of knowing if his previous encounter was a fluke or if he was blessed by providence to survive. The gunfight outside of the gate after her exhumation came back to her.

Power: ninety-seven percent

Her new pack was above and beyond any of her expectations. It would be a while before she powered down, if at all. She calculated that if she were completely idle, she could stay on in perpetuity.

But that wasn’t living. That was existing, not living.

It would have been no different than occupying her rocky tomb.

But what can I do?

She thought through the possibilities.

Soltana dug deep into her systems, attempting to run diagnostics from her earlier life before freedom.

Error: list damaged. Create new protocols?

This was familiar territory, but she still obliged.

Error: Unable to Create New Protocols. Internal Damage detected.

She scratched off one possibility. There was one more thing she could try. She felt a tremble in the mansion followed by the noise of a loud muffled crack.

“L’yophin…”

Another rumble rang out, clattering the silken home. It felt like the earth itself was quivering.

“L’yophin! Are you alright?”

Silence.

She would have to trust her spidery friend was safe. She knew she could stay active in idle mode for ages. But remaining idle was not her calling. If she needed to wait ages to power off, then she would do it herself.

Create module: Sleep

Sleep module created! Systems go into hibernation until a timer is set or a disturbance is met.

Alert: Protocols reset. Diagnostic available.

“Oh! Something was stuck, then. This is good. I will inspect it later.”

She was elated at the news that her systems were convalescing. But that would come later. Right now, she had a journey to take.

Activate module: sleep - wake on disturbance.

She would trust L’yophin would wake her. That he would be all right in his situation with the Trows. She would not fear. She powered down, the last noise she heard was a thundercrack from outside. Her systems ceased. The room went dark.

And Soltana dreamed.