Val stared at Kira for a moment before she remembered the explanation of the process earlier. By maintaining a mental link with Rez, she had only completed the first of three main stages needed to become a fully-functional User. However, Rez’s primary runtime was still physically located in a computer bank somewhere in Peakpoint.

The chair was currently serving as the bridge between Val and the server – in Kira’s terminology, the totally non-threatening metal needles jabbed deep into her brain were the “tether” linking the two. But Users often left the city on expeditions into offline zones where communication with the city would be unstable or impossible, so Users and Daemons needed to run in an “untethered” mode instead.

Val hadn’t paid enough attention in Post-Singularity History during high school to remember the name of the mad scientist who had come up with the solution. It was almost certainly a human who suggested it as Daemons are arguably more rational and risk-averse. The “genius” idea was to upload the Daemon in its entirety to the User’s brain.

For a normal human, this idea stayed wholly within the realm of the impossible. But it turned out that a willing nano-enhanced human and Daemon could actually work together to modify the human brain with nano such that it could host both the human and Daemon consciousnesses.

In that context, “synchronization” was more than just a measure of how well the human and Daemon worked together; rather, it was a measure of how intertwined the two consciousnesses were on a physical level. Over time, the thought patterns for the two beings became more similar. The same neural pathways could be used by both, leading to lower biological stress and higher cognitive efficiency – and therefore, how effective the pair were at real world tasks.

Val shuddered briefly, trying to avoid thinking about all the things that could go wrong at this stage. She and Rez were literally going to rewrite portions of her brain so that Rez would have space to move into her brain. “Are you two sure that this is less dangerous than the initial contact?”

“Oh yes,” responded Kira. “Well, I guess it depends on your perspective, but this is definitely the more controlled step. Initial contact depends so much on the individual that we are basically doing it for the first time every time. But neural rewiring is approximately the same for everyone and we’ve been doing it for hundreds of years at this point. It’s a risk versus consequence thing – the consequence is obviously dire, but the risk is very low.”

Agreed. I have personally conducted over a hundred of these neural rewiring procedures without any negative incidents. And frankly, our synchronization is already much higher than most, which also helps. In fact, I expect this to be some of my finest work. You may be aware that these new User sessions are recorded for safety purposes, but I suspect you will likely become a case study for training new conversion assistants in the future.

Their confidence made Val feel more comfortable, although she didn’t know how she felt about starring in training videos. She vaguely remembered reading something about that in all those waivers she had to sign. But who has time to read those things?

I do.

Val rolled her eyes. “Yea, yea, Rez, we get it. You’re just better than the rest of us.” Kira giggled as a wave of satisfaction washed over Val through her connection to the Daemon. Val’s eyes narrowed. Is that a hint of smugness I sense, Rez?

I have no idea what you are talking about. A pause, and then Rez continued, quieter and more apologetically. But truly, your mind is already decoding more subtleties in my packets to you than many Users ever do. I don’t have any concerns about this next step.

Settling back into her chair, Val nodded to Kira. “Alright, let’s do this then.”

“Ok, we are proceeding with neural rewiring. Rez will handle most of the heavy lifting, but they will occasionally give you directions. Typically, they will ask you to recall certain types of memories or perform simple tasks. The idea is to fire specific neural pathways so that Rez can work around them without disrupting them. Please do your best to follow their instructions as best as possible.”

Some instructions will involve remembering certain memories. Usually, the more intense the memory, the better. I apologize in advance if any memories are painful, but please do not hold back.

Val felt her chest tighten slightly. In recent days, she had been able to ignore the feelings of rage, sorrow, and grief that bubbled down deep in her subconsciousness, distracting herself with training and User Selection. But now, she’d have to dredge all of that back up to the forefront. Val gritted her teeth but nodded.

“Let’s begin.”

Darkness descended upon her.

Val had no idea how long her awareness floated there in the darkness. Mere seconds could have flashed by, or it could have stretched into months or years. She couldn’t feel any part of her body, she just simply was. In a way, it was peaceful, a pleasant change from the constant struggle of the past few years.

I apologize for the abrupt transition. While the procedure is safe, I think humans find it distressing when their brains start acting in ways they don’t expect. I’ve isolated the majority of your higher-level cognitive processes from the low-level ones that keep your physical body alive. We’ll now begin adding them back piecewise in a way that is compatible with also hosting a Daemon.

Val tried to open her mouth to speak before realizing she didn’t have a mouth to move. Panic started to set in before she forced herself to stay calm. Rez had just finished explaining that she was having a genuine out-of-body experience, of course her mouth didn’t work. But she could still think, therefore she still was.

An interesting rationalization. Not unlike the first thoughts of many Daemons when they achieve sentience.

Finally, Val calmed down enough to string together some coherent thoughts. OK, as much as I love the philosophy here, I have to admit that I’ll feel better about this when it’s over. What do you need from me?

Very driven. That’s good, the more identity you provide now, the easier this will be. We’ll start with some basic memory recall. Please try to picture the geography of Henia. Be specific, focus on important human settlements or landmarks.

Val concentrated on the form of the roughly circular continent. The Eastern Henian Mountains dominated the right part of the continent, with the cities of Peakpoint, Rune, and Farrow running from north to south throughout the mountains. The Still Sea in the center of the continent, flanked on top by the settlement of Tress and below by Hunter’s Landing. Then, the barren Western Plains until the city of Westport, the trading hub to the second continent of Parvam. The dangerous Beast Isles off the south coast of the continent near Hunter’s Landing.

Excellent. What are the main Guilds?

Seven Guilds. Three combat-oriented: Guardians, Mercenaries, and Scouts. The other four support-oriented: Technicians, Engineers, Merchants, and Messengers.

Now more personal. Please recall several happy memories of a close friend or family member.

Memories of Fynn leapt to mind. Since childhood, they had gotten into and out of trouble together. Sneaking into the kitchen to swipe a few of Drav’s freshly baked cookies off the counter. As teenagers, running through the alleyways chasing lizards or rodents. Gathering their friends and spending the night out under the stars in a wrecked building in the unreclaimed portions of the city. As young adults, physical training and planning their careers. Rotating with the Guardians and Scouts together. The inherent, unbreakable trust in their friendship.

Finally, a memory that brings up negative emotions.

Memories that she kept bottled up deep inside came boiling up to the surface. A few weeks before the start of her first Guild rotation with the Technicians. Running inside her family’s house, expecting to see her mother and father back from their Messenger trip to the Parvam Federation. Saw her aunt Zyra, then a rising star, now the Messenger Guildmaster, instead. Her parents declared traitors, stealing and escaping with classified information from the Federation, and killed in the resulting combat. Grief and sorrow of knowing she’d never see her parents again. Rage at many in the Messenger Guild, who she had thought were like family but cut ties with the traitor’s daughter. Despair that they might be right and that her parents had knowingly abandoned her to carry out some terrible act of sabotage.

And from all that pain, the burning desire to become strong. To find out for herself what happened on that fateful day in the opposite corner of the world. To prove the naysayers, and her own deepest darkest fears, wrong. She’d show everyone: she may be cracked, but she was unbroken.

Val floated alone in the darkness for some time after she finished venting her last answer, slowly composing herself and bottling up those emotions again. She knew it wasn’t healthy to ignore her feelings about those memories, but most days she just couldn’t deal with it. She’d rather throw herself through some brutal training regiment or into a dangerous mission than stew in her own negativity.

And the world flashed back into light.

Val’s eyes fluttered open again. She panicked when everything looked fuzzy and blurry. Maybe Rez wasn’t able to put everything back together again? She frantically blinked a few times and thankfully her vision cleared up. Reaching up to rub her face, but suddenly stopped when her fingers came away wet. She was confused for a moment before it hit her. Oh, I’ve just been crying. These are just tears.

It had been a few months before she had gotten a good cry in. She quickly turned her face away from Kira and wiped up her eyes with the heel of her palm, giving a quick sniffle to clear up her nose. Val almost felt ashamed before she realized how stupid that was. I’ve literally just survived having my brain rearranged by a crazy advanced computer program, and I’m afraid to show a minor biological response like crying? Val let out a wheezy chuckle instead and flopped deeper into the chair, mentally exhausted.

“The neural rewiring seems to have been completed without any problems. How are you feeling, Val?” asked Kira. Concern was written on her face, but Val could tell it was for her frail emotional state rather than whatever numbers were flashing up on her screen.

“Well, you know, as well as I could be given my brain just got scrambled.” Val paused for another sniffle before continuing, “Really though, everything feels fine. This is normal behavior for me thinking about the things Rez asked me to, I think.”

“Yes, that’s a common reaction. I’m glad you seem to think things are well though, my metrics can only tell so much.”

And I apologize again for having to bring up such intensely negative feelings, Valriya. I’m continuously impressed by your resilience and drive.

Val waved a hand up in the air. “Don’t worry about it, it’s your job.” Without thinking, she ran her hand through her hair before realizing she didn’t feel any needles. She twisted around to look at the headrest and saw that she was free of the needles.

“Yes, that’s right, you’re untethered! Rez is maintaining a part of his consciousness in your head without the hard link now,” Kira said, noticing Val’s antics.

A grin spread across Val’s face. Just one more step and I’m a User! It was only when Kira laughed did Val realize she had spoken aloud.

“Yes that’s right, almost there,” Kira responded, covering a smile with her hand. “We’ve got all the infrastructure in your head right, so now we just need to connect it to the rest of your nanosystem. Then you’ll be powering it instead of the wall, and you’ll be fully untethered.”

Bridging into Valriya’s internal nanosystem now.

Val felt a slight burning sensation run down her neck and spine before spreading through her chest as Rez reached down towards her core. She let out an involuntary gasp when the two nanosystems connected as the burning sensation rapidly spread throughout her entire body. It felt like her whole body had been asleep, and now that she was feeling the pins and needles as it woke up. Luckily, the feeling dissipated after several seconds.

Bridging complete, the neural rewiring is now linked into Valriya’s main nanosystem. Switching power sources from external power to her internal core.

A pressure started building in Val’s chest as she felt her core activating, presumably taking the load of running Rez’s processes. She was just wondering how far they had come when a display appeared in her vision showing the breakdown of the power distribution, which currently sat at 40% on her core and was slowly rising a couple of percentage points every second. Thanks Rez.

No problem, as you young kids say. Just reaching 50%, we are now running mostly on Valriya’s core. Most readings are nominal.

The pressure continued mounting in Val’s chest, slowly making it harder and harder to breathe. When the display hit 60% and the pain refused to lessen, she gritted her teeth and grunted out, “Is this supposed to be painful?”

Kira’s head whipped over, eyes widening. “No, not at all. In fact, core load should almost never register as pain unless you are close to overloading. While your core capacity is below average, everything is within acceptable parameters. In fact, your sync and neural rewiring are extremely good. I don’t understand…”

That may be the problem. Valriya’s neural systems are extremely high quality, and it appears they require significantly more power than we originally estimated. Maybe too much for her core to jumpstart.

Val struggled to take in another breath, her entire focus on the meter slowly ticking up past 70%. “Any way to stop or reverse the process?”

“Not without catastrophic damage to one or both of you. Rez, you should get out of there! She’ll live if her core shuts down, but if you are still occupying her when that happens…” yelled Kira, tapping frantically at her console.

Leaving now would destabilize Val’s systems past the point where she could feasibly recover. I refuse to sabotage such a promising User specimen.

Shit. Darkness started encroaching on Val’s field of view as the meter ticked past 80%. She was on the verge of going unconscious, but she was so close. So close to being a User. She took another painful breath and clenched her teeth together. “What… happens at… 100%?”

The initial transfer is the most power hungry stage as your system adapts to the new equilibrium. We will hit a peak in power just as the transfer ends, but then the load should drop drastically.

“I have a medical emergency in Room 13B! Get me someone, I don’t care who – Gaia damn it all, is Mae still in the building? Get her down here now!” Val barely heard Kira’s panicked yelling on a link to someone.

Her senses completely failed her at 90%, the world going black for the second time today. Except this time, Val could still feel her body. It felt like a storm of daggers were plunging into her chest, her limbs twitching and spasming as the pain overloaded her brain.

I should have caught this discrepancy sooner, Valriya. It’s my responsibility. I plan to see you through this.

Val was in no position to talk or even think of a response back, but she felt oddly comforted by the Daemon’s support. If what Kira said was true, Rez was in even more danger than Val herself.

95%...

96%...

At the edge of her awareness, Val felt several strong pairs of hands grab and restrain her flailing limbs.

98%...

99%...

Done, power ramping back down. Stay with us, Valriya.

Rez was right, the pain was diminishing quickly. She took in a shuddering breath, blessedly free of pain. Fresh air rushed into her lungs, bringing a cool feeling of relief to her overheated core. A heightened awareness slammed into her and she opened her eyes widely. She was taking in information on an unprecedented scale. Not only that, but she could feel Rez processing it and distilling it down to manageable levels for her.

The calluses on the hands holding down her right leg belonged to a strong warrior, one who wielded powerful weapons. A struggle even with nano enhancement. Her eyes confirmed the hulking form of Hav, the Mercenary Guildmaster. Good choice to hold me down.

Another firm grip on her left leg, but more tentative. Unsure of their role in the situation. Familiar but distant all the same. Her gaze shifted over, eyes widening as she took in Zyra. Messenger Guildmaster. Her aunt. The bearer of the worst news of her life. Can’t deal with that right now.

Left shoulder was stabilized by a pair of steady hands. A professional medic, but distracted. The slight uneven pressure told Val that the owner of that pair of hands was twisting their upper body away from her. Is it really that bad? She looked up to see Mae, Technician Guildmaster, bent over the displays in a low conversation with Kira. Ahh, makes sense. Well, I’ve got the right person on the job.

The grip on her right arm was just a little too right. Strong hands, but… trembling. Scared. Scared to lose me? If Val had been surprised to see Zyra here, she was even more surprised to see Celedon was the owner of those hands. His expression was serious, no mockery here. And Val could see it in her eyes, Rez confirming with microexpression analysis. Wow, he really IS scared to lose me. Guess he does care.

Val’s body decided to betray her at that moment by letting out a low groan. Everyone in the room focused on her. She licked her lips nervously before asking the only relevant question. “So, how bad is it?”

Kira and Mae exchanged a glance before Kira started responding. “The good news is the power transfer was a success in the end. Your nanosystem is stable, Rez is undamaged, and your synchronization is still at record high of 23% – unheard of for a new User.”

Val’s newly heightened senses picked out that each guildmaster was surprised by a different part of that announcement, but it was Celedon who got in for clarification first.

“23% sync on the first day?” he asked incredulously.

Kira nodded. “Yes, even tethered, Val and Rez had sync in the double digits.” She looked at Mae nervously before continuing. “We think that was part of the issue actually. All her stats are in normal ranges, but her neural systems are operating at a much higher level than expected, so her average core couldn’t keep up…” She winced as she trailed off.

It probably wasn’t good form to butt in when four of the most powerful humans on the continent were in the room, but Val couldn’t take the suspense anymore. “What’s the bad news?”

Mae took over for Kira, who looked supremely uncomfortable. “While everything is stable… there was permanent damage to your core, Val.” Val looked into Mae’s eyes and cursed under her breath. It was not a good look to see that expression of pity while getting your diagnosis.

Mae visibly steeled herself and finished her summary of the situation professionally, but quickly, like she couldn’t wait to be done delivering bad news. “For lack of better terminology, there’s a hairline fracture in your core. Normal operation should be no issue, but any intense stress on your system could exacerbate the fracture. If the fracture grows too large, it could cripple your entire nanosystem.”

The room fell into a sort of stunned silence digesting Mae’s proclamation. There was no second opinion needed. Mae was quite possibly THE expert on human-Daemon interactions on the planet. This was reality. It was just up to Val on how she could cope.

Of all the people she expected to console her, it was not her abrasive, obnoxious mentor. And yet, it was Celedon who leaned in. “You know, there’s plenty of room in that diagnosis for a productive life, Val. There are plenty of places in any of our Guilds even if you aren’t a Us–”

“No.”

A second silence fell over the room. Val's mind worked frantically. She had finally succeeded in becoming a User, and they were going to try and take it away from her? Her eyes flicked back and forth between the Guildmasters, struggling to find the right words to say. Celedon started to say something again, but Val cut him off.

“No. Pardon the disrespect, but I refuse to hear anything about not becoming a User out of anyone’s mouth here." Val's confidence grew as she finally landed an argument that might just work. "My nanosystem is currently stable, and I apparently have some of the highest neural stats that anyone has ever seen. We’re surviving as a society, but you really mean to tell me that you as Guildmasters can afford to leave a tool like me on the sideline?”

She fixed them each with a glare and was satisfied to see the Guildmasters taking her words seriously. In particular, Celedon sat back with an appraising look in his eye before giving her a nod.

“I get the sense that we’ll have some more conversations about this soon. But for now, I’m incredibly tired. Can we just talk about this tomorrow?”

Celedon opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it after a second. With a nod, he got up and started to leave the room. As if that was some unspoken signal, the others stood up as well and walked slowly to the door.

Val turned to Kira. “Is it OK if I take my time getting up? I need a minute to recover.”

“Of course,” said Kira. “Take all the time you need. Rez knows how to get in touch with me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

Val waited until everyone left the room before she let the tears fall freely down her face. Rez, what was it I said the last time I cried today?

I think it was “I’m cracked but unbroken.”

Right. Well, confirmed that I’m cracked. I guess unbroken remains to be seen. A decision for later. Darkness swept over Val for the third time that day.