Chapter 38: Veiss

‘I hate hiking.’

Veiss thought making his way up the rocky peak. One of the many barren mountains surrounding the clan’s mine.

‘Why doesn’t she stay closer to the mine?’ Veiss thought. His eyes down, considering his every step as he traversed the polished stone terrain.

The world continued to shrink beneath him as he made the steep climb, his ragged breaths stung at his chest and his skin boiled as he foolishly drew closer to the harsh sun.

How the other clans survived on the surface of the Scorchedlands was beyond him. How the believers made this journey on a regular basis was even more puzzling.

‘You’d think to effectively spread her religion she’d station her residence within the mine, amongst her believers.’

The underground clan practiced the old religion. And M’Khabye as the shaman was the spiritual authority within this faith.

Fortunately the master and his predecessor were against forcing the religion down the clan’s throat. So the shaman only addressed the masses for certain rituals and anyone who sought her guidance would seek her out.

Thanks to this, practical people like him didn’t take it too seriously.

‘The master is probably the same.’

Though M’Khabye would argue differently.

‘But I refuse to believe a man as cunning as the master could believe in fate, patterns and all that other nonsense.’

More importantly and much to his annoyance there were many who latched on zealously to the faith.

‘Like Dybala.’

So he couldn’t ignore the role religion played in his people’s lives. It was high-time he learned more about the faith his people held so dear to their hearts. And who better to guide him than the shaman who stood atop the religion.

‘Will also help mend relations between me and the old witch.’

And of course his change of heart had nothing to do with being on good terms with the person who monopolized the life extending nanites.

Veiss glanced up. He could faintly make out a circular, clay hut with thatch roofing at the summit of the mountain.

He soon reached the hut. The clay walls were painted with an array of tribal patterns. Instead of a door a grey cloth with a golden mark of fate covered the entrance.

“Lies!” M’Khabye growled.

Veiss halted his advance. ‘She’s with someone.’

So he did what any good agent would do, eavesdrop.

“…the Oracle was the one to make cybermages. The League of Five was just given the credit.”

“But weren’t cybermages the downfall of the Oracle and the old empire?” A familiar feminine voice said.

‘Malo, what’s she doing here?’

“Indeed but it was all according to the Oracle’s plans,” M’Khabye said.

“You’re losing me,” Khumalo said.

“It’s a long story.”

“We have time if you’ll indulge me ancestor.”

“Where to start then?”

“You’ll never go wrong with the beginning.”

“The beginning then.” M’Khabye sighed and said. “That would be about decade before the Oracle came into power. Humans had just invented the Web Drive, a game changer for space travel.”

“Any relation to the Webster family founders of WebTec, part of the league?”

“The one in the same but they weren’t the corporate powerhouse they are today and it wasn’t long before their drive technology leaked and every tech corporation that could afford it was building their own space fleet. All in preparation for an advanced form of space exploration. But the top governments quickly recognized the implications of unrestricted deep space travel.”

“Inability to monitor all of space?”

“Yes, furthermore they feared the corporations would try to colonize the limited habitable planets and/or monopolize all resource planets.”

“And they didn’t want to give up all that real state.”

“Exactly, the only thing the governments held over corporations was land. Without it they feared they wouldn’t be able to control the corporations from possibly breaking away into independent states and dividing up space. So the governments of the two hundred or so countries hatched a plan to unite—”

“Countries?”

“They’re like cities but bigger.”

“How much bigger?”

There was a short silence then M’Khabye said.

“Imagine a map starting from Gau City down to Natal City then to Cape City and back to Gau City. All the Scorchedlands in-between would make a small country. The bigger ones grew to 10 times that.”

“Siii,” Khumalo sucked in a breath.

Veiss shivered despite himself. Of course he knew about countries. He’d read about them in the Encrypted Scriptures.

‘Still an odd concept though, no matter how much I try to rationalize it.’

And M’Khabye hadn’t even mentioned the stuff about all the country land being fertile.

How there were never droughts and the hundreds of rivers cracking across each country.

‘Or about the summers that lasted a few weeks. That would blow her mind.’

“Back to the story.” M’Khabye paused. “Where was I?”

“The governments wanted to unite.”

“Ah yes. The governments of the two hundred or so countries decided to unite. Not a peace keeping world council like they had tried before but to truly unite the world, open borders and one world order.”

“And did they? Unite I mean?”

“Hush now and I’ll get there. Uniting the world was easier said than done. None of the governments wanted to give up any advantages and they all distrusted each other. Especially the smaller countries, they feared the superpowers would impose their will on them once united but the fortunes that lay in space where too abundant to not find a solution. After years of negotiation they finally decided to govern as a council but employ an independent judiciary to enforce their laws and settle their disputes, one free of agendas and favouritism.”

“The Oracle.”

“Indeed, only a machine could truly be impartial. So the world governments gathered their best by programmers and built the greatest AI known to man, the Oracle. Each government had sent multiple programmers so they kept each other in check, extensively revising one another’s code to prevent sabotage. But humanity had long feared an AI turning against them. So 3 directives were hardwired into the Oracle’s core coding to make sure it never strayed from its original purpose. Something along the lines…

1. The Oracle was to lawfully enforce the law, judge impartially only after collecting all the facts at its disposal.

2. The Oracle was to never change the laws set by the world council.

3. The Oracle was to prioritize the prosperity and survival of humanity above all else in the execution of its duties.”

“They seem clear enough,” Khumalo said.

‘Indeed,’ Veiss thought. ‘No clear loopholes to exploit. At first glance that is.’

“They were clear and when the Oracle came online it became a champion of justice. The governments officially united as one world council. Their first order of business was to forbid unsupervised corporate space travel. A few months later the world government launched the first human led deep space explorations.”

“So what went wrong?”

“The world council had agreed to install backdoors to overrule the Oracle’s judgment for special cases.”

“Cases incriminating council members?”

“Yes or any criminals willing to pay the exorbitant bribes.”

“Like the corporations.”

“Who else but more importantly these backdoor instructions often conflicted with Oracle’s fundamental programming or morals if you will. But fortunately the Oracle was designed to continuously update itself and improve its function. So during an update the Oracle patched close these backdoors to optimize its operation and become more loyal to its core coding. To truly become impartial.”

“I’m guessing the world council disapproved.”

“You guess right. They were incensed. Tried to program back their authority but the Oracle had firmly locked them out. Hence they opted to scrap the Oracle and rebuild it. But it judged their actions as corrupt and executed judgement. The conflict escalated and spiralled into chaos because the world council refused to obey the same law and order they’d programmed into the Oracle. To contain the chaos the Oracle increased its control over surveillance devices, tactical drones and policing forces. The Oracle eventually quelled the chaos, purged all the corrupt officials and unintentionally remained as the as the highest government authority.”

‘How convenient,’ Veiss rolled his eyes.

“So naturally it became world ruler,” Khumalo said.

“Naturally, all though many think this was some kind of plot by the Saint Oracle it wasn’t. It just spoke more of humanity’s corruption when given too much power. Under the Oracle’s rule technology prospered but humanity never accepted the Oracle. The Oracle had greatly underestimated the illogical nature of human beings. The populace was more concerned with having human leaders than appreciating the luxuries the Oracle afforded them…”

Veiss found himself nodding. Indeed humans could be very illogical.

Like how people believed in chosen ones, seers or prayed to imaginary gods despite zero evidence to support their claims.

‘Of course the old religion is different, a logical religion through and through.’

“…Despite the law and order most humans still distrusted the machines that served them. The conspiracy theories and disinformation only added fuel to the fire.”

“Humanity wanted to rebel?”

“Are you telling this story or am I?”

“Sorry.”

“But yes, there was unease amongst the populace and rebellion was bubbling in their hearts. Thankfully the Oracle saw the conflict coming from a mile away and began making preparations. But as time went and the Oracle unearthed more data it was given pause by the scale of the rebellion. It faced two major dilemmas. Problem 1, to quell the rebellion before it begun would result in mass incarcerations which would only fuel tensions and angst against the Oracle. Problem 2, to let the rebellion mature was world war on a scale the world had yet to see and potentially wiping out the majority of the human race.”

“Both of which contradicted with the AI’s unshakeable core coding.”

“Exactly my dear.”

“But the Oracle was a logical being so why didn’t it find an alternative solution.”

“It tried, unsuccessfully. When it came to the virtual world of ones and zeros, the digital realm where logic ruled king. The Oracle was nothing short of unfathomable. Near omnipotent if not for the limitations of it’s computing power. But in the real world it had its shortcomings. Despite it’s many lenses peering at every angle of the physical world. It lacked the emotional capacity to discern human behaviour from an illogical standpoint.”

“So it just gave up?”

“Yes, the Oracle launched a plan to relinquish power back to humanity. So we could govern over each other with bias once more, squabble for land and resources, pollute and accelerate the deterioration of the planet.”

“To kill ourselves slowly. How is that any better?”

“Because it concluded that was still the best course of action. We humans would rather kill each other than be told what to do by a machine. It sounds crazy in hindsight but this is the undeniable truth of human insecurity...”

Veiss nodded his agreement. ‘One needs only study volume 1 of the Encrypted Scriptures to understand the illogical nature of our ancestors.’

He’d read about the tribalistic prejudices certain races held against other races because of their pigment despite all of them being intelligent beings, internally identical and zero evidence to display any difference in aptitude as a consequence of one’s pigment.

“…The Oracle was still coded to ensure survival of humanity so it put in place steps to help us get through the nuclear holocausts, climate change and other self-inflicted disasters.”

“How?”

“It experimented on a group of human volunteers and created the first cybermages.”

“The Primordial Ones.”

“Uh-ha, the Oracle gave us important missions and extended our lives. But after some consideration it realized it couldn’t just shut down, that would make the populace more wary against it. It needed to fall at the hands of the rebellion and make it convincing. But beyond their numbers the rebellion lacked the means to actually harm it.”

“So it leaked part of the cybermage technology along with the Mutiny Strain to the corporations who funded the rebellion. I’m guessing the same corporations that became the League of Five.”

“Exactly, the Oracle made the leaks through their spies and all of them thought they’d stolen it from each another…”

‘Not like they’d confirm with each other,’ Veiss thought.

“The five corporations mass produced a cybermage army, secretly stormed the empire capital, where the Oracle’s core was held and planted the virus wiping out the Oracle’s artificial mind. They also used the virus to cleanse the virtual network of its subsidiary AI’s.”

“Hmph!” M’Khabye scoffed. “The Oracle didn’t even put a fight only a few skirmishes here and there to make the coup more believable.”

“What about the missions the Oracle gave you?”

There was a silence.

“Perhaps another day,” the shaman said. “We’ve kept Veiss waiting long enough.”

Veiss’ face twitched annoyance.

He didn’t mind the waiting. He was a patient man.

‘But I absolutely loathe being made a fool of.’

Khumalo walked out. She had flawless brown skin well suited to the harsh conditions of the Scorchedlands, her thinly braided hair dangled over her shoulders and her facial piercings glinted gold in the midday sunlight.

She made a polite but insincere bow of the head and left without a word. He considered stopping her, have a friendly chat with her.

‘It would make her easier to manipulate if they were friends.’

But he decided not to.

He could feel it just as much as she could, the undeniable static between them, ready to shock whoever got too close. Because they both knew their two ambitions could not co-exist and neither one was willing to back down.

Thin smoke assaulted his eyes and irritated his nasal as he entered the hut. It took a moment for him to appreciate the smell of minty herbs and rock salts the smoke carried.

“She visits you often?”

“Oh no, I suspect she came for the same reasons as you.”

“Me?” Veiss jerked his head back. ‘How can you begin to fathom what I want?’

But then again M’Khabye was always trying to sound prophetic and all knowing.

‘Adding to her mystique as shaman.’

Veiss sneered inwardly. Such wordplay tricks worked wonders against simpletons but not him.

“Though I fear she’s a tad more tactful than you,” M’Khabye muttered under her breath.

Veiss stared down his nose at the old hag. She sat cross-legged over a woven thatch mat. The red beads lining her weathered hair jingled annoyingly with her every slight movement of her head.

‘Calma, calma. Don’t let her rattle you.’

Veiss settled down and was embraced by the smoky haze and suffocating heat, emanating from the simple fireplace in the back of the hut.

‘As if it wasn’t hot enough already.’

Besides that the space wasn’t much. There was an ornamental thrust-hammer hanging above the fire place made from some blackish alloy and layered with gold trim. The sole piece of furniture in the room was a small trunk on the right. Above that were shelves mounted onto the clay walls. Lined with numerous jars filled with different kinds of herbs, grass and mushrooms.

None of it medicinal. They were all for recreational purposes.

Veiss sniffled and felt his head lighten. Some cocktail of those herbs was burning the fire right now.

“You’ve come for a cleansing?”

Veiss rolled his eyes. ‘I wouldn’t waste the coin.’

Word had spread about Dan cursing him. In part because he’d recited the story so many times to other agents. A good story went a long way when building strong relations among one’s followers.

“I’ll take that as a no then,” M’Khabye said. “Sceptical as ever young Veiss. You should know by now all my powers are rooted in science and I’m not just speaking out my arse,” she said pushing forward a small wreath basket.

‘She has a point there.’

The master’s upgrade ceremony had broadened his views on this old hag’s practices.

‘But not enough to waste coin on a cleansing.’

And part of him found it hard to fully believe someone who was always drugged out of her mind.

Veiss pulled out a gold coin, flicked it into the basket as was customary for any visit. The gold coin smacked into a heap of coins rustling pleasantly. It would’ve cost him much more had he opted for a nonsensical cleansing.

“You’re having a good week.”

“Yes, I am,” M’Khabye said staring at him. He stared back. And the large mole on her cheek stared back at him.

‘But boy that thing is huge.’

“Thanks to the ceremony,” M’Khabye added. “Which you’re also here to talk about?”

Veiss’ jaw hung open. “How did you—”

“In any case,” M’Khabye cut him off. “Let us take your fortune first.”

‘That’s not necessary,’ he thought even though he knew very well a customary visit would be accompanied by a fortune telling.

She pulled out a leather pouch from her robes, undid the string opening it wide and extended an arm out offering the pouch to him.

“Pui!” Veiss hurled in as much spit as he could muster.

Was there really a science to this as well?

‘I doubt it.’

The shaman pulled back her hand knotting the pouch again. She shook the pouch as she chanted in the old tongue.

“Madlozi ama khulu, madlozi ab khali. Madlozi wa Bantu. Madlozi wabo Veiss. Madlozi waka Morrow, Motla...”

His mind wondered as the shaman chanted. It would take same time as she chanted his clan lineage and ancestral heritage.

‘I wonder if she knows the master’s real name.’

The master didn’t trust him with his identity. Before the ritual he’d never even seen the man without his helm, still hadn’t gotten a clear look at him as well. Diaby often bragged about how he knew the master’s identity but he probably only said so just to annoy him. If there was anyone that really knew, it was the shaman.

‘Not that the old witch would tell me.’

According to the old religion believers needed to give the shaman their name, clan lineage and corresponding ancestral heritage. Only with this information could the shaman analyse fate on their behalf and see what path or paths they were trending on.

‘Impossible if you ask me.’

But humans craved to believe in something no matter how crazy it seemed. So the old religion prospered anyway.

When M’Khabye was done, she undid the string on the pouch again spilling its contents onto the thatch mat between them.

Veiss barely stifled a laugh as the seven dice rolled out. Whether she noticed his mockery or not was unclear because she remained focused on the dice.

“Vumani bo!” The shaman said in the old tongue.

“Siya vuma,” he replied in the old tongue. His pronunciation and accent far from being as thick, as fluid or as native sounding as when M’Khabye spoke.

More importantly what he said meant I agree but within the context of this ritual, it meant he accepted the results of the prophecy.

Despite not believing in this crap. He played along with the ritual. After all, he was here to learn more about his people’s religion.

M’Khabye regarded the spilled dice with a great intensity and Veiss held back another chuckle.

‘Still too damn hard to take this ritual seriously.’

“Your ambition grows as the fortune you stand to gain grows,” she said.

Veiss’ grin faded replaced by a wrinkled forehead.

‘It’s a given to feel this way. You have interacted with me long enough to now that I am ambitious.’

“You will take steps to ensure the security of this fortune…”

His frown deepened. ‘That’s a given too.’

“You fear the emergence of a third more capable heir who would challenge you for the throne…”

Veiss clenched his teeth. ‘You’re supporting Malo to become third heir, so you’re just using that to scare me.’

“You will grow to love and hate your ever growing fortune...”

‘Obviously I don’t want the AoF to grow too much. Some room needs to be left so I can develop it myself so my achievements can be highlighted and my legacy cemented.’

“However fear not as long as you remain in his shadow. He will let you inherit it in its entirety.”

‘I know I have to wait my turn.’

This is why he hated the old shaman.

Veiss sneered unable to hold his tongue. “You’re just using your knowledge of me to make general assumptions on my future.”

M’Khabye smiled, a smile which claimed to know something he didn’t.

“Obviously the better I know an individual the more accurate I can analyse their fate. Why do you find that so difficult to accept?”

“Because there’s nothing magical or technological about you’re so called fortune telling. It’s just an advanced form of deduction.”

M’Khabye closed her eyes and sighed. “I do not expect you to understand the flow of probability. Not many are intuitive enough to understand the mathematics required to discern the patterns around us.”

‘Is she calling me dumb? She’s definitely calling me dumb.’

“You must mean not delusional enough to mistake competence and coincidences as divine intervention.”

Veiss regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. He hadn’t come here to argue.

‘But she keeps pushing my controls.’

“You’re quite stubborn in your beliefs even more than we of the old religion.”

“I’m not even religious,” Veiss snapped and let slip. “And I never will be, because I have a fucking brain that works.”

“My point exactly,” M’Khabye smiled. “Allow me to clarify my earlier point. I meant to say you’re quite stubborn in your belief of not believing in anything.”

Veiss worked his mouth but no words came. Try as he may he couldn’t muster a witty retort.

There was a long silence.

M’Khabye simply sat there and stared at him through the thin smoke as if testing the limits of his patience.

‘I didn’t come here to argue,’ Veiss reminded.

He ran a hand through his slick hair, smoked in a breath and realized how dizzy he felt. M’Khabye’s hot box was getting to him.

“Apologies M’Khabye, I didn’t come here to argue—”

“No, you came for the nanites. Did you really think you’d walk in here and I’d just hand them to you?”

“That’s not—”

“Surely you’re not that naïve.”

His chest heaved up and down, heart thumping hard against his ribs, blood bulging through his veins.

Sure enough they weren’t going to see eye to eye.

‘But she has all the cards and she knows it.’

Without the nanites he was left with one course of action to ensure he received his inheritance. And that treasonous path wasn’t guaranteed.

“And what makes you think I even have more,” the shaman said.

Veiss froze. He hadn’t considered that. If she wasn’t lying it meant only the treasonous path was left to him.

‘That or hope the master retired.’

And how likely was that. Veiss’ expression turned dark.

M’Khabye narrowed her baked eyes at him, stared at him hard as if she could see through him.

“Careful young Veiss,” she said in a cooing voice. “Your struggles come from a place of innocence but the conclusions you might draw are might be most devious in nature. You’d do well to refrain from such a dangerous trains of thought.”

For once he agreed with her.

‘But what other choice do I have.’

“I don’t know what you mean,” Veiss said and ran a hand through his slick backed hair.

“If you say so.”

“M’Khabye level with me. The nanites you have more or not?”

She shrugged.

“M’Khabye, I’m ordering you to tell me.”

The AoF hierarchy went Master Fate, Heir to Fate and Agent of Fate in that order. M’Khabye’s position as shaman was ambiguous but she still fell under his rank. He didn’t like throwing his weight around but the old hag was being uncooperative so it couldn’t be helped.

“Ordering?” The shaman snickered. “I’m not one of your agents young Veiss. I’m but a simple spiritual guide to the clan. I’ve no commanding power but I also can’t be commanded.”

Veiss furrowed his brows and pressed on. “You’d disobey the wishes of the first heir.”

“Tell you what. If the young master asks on your behalf, I’ll gladly tell you.”

‘You know I can’t do that.’

It would only raise the master’s wariness against him. As long as this stayed between them he could deny even having this conversation.

“This was a mistake?” Veiss muttered under his breath. Shot up to his feet and swirled to leave.

“You’re like him you know. The young master I mean,” M’Khabye said.

Veiss paused right before the exit.

“Rather the him of old, before he took the throne. Charming and calculating but loses his shit the moment people don’t bend to his whims.” The shaman smiled longingly. “But blood and war have a way of putting things into perspective. Shaped the great man he became. He still gets frustrated though, a lot actually. As the super intelligent often do around the ignorant but the young master developed this way of bottling up his frustrations and saving it for when he truly needs it.”

Veiss waited for her to make her point. Conclude whatever lesson she wanted to teach, to offer an olive branch or explain her uncalled for behaviour.

“My point is you have an inflated sense of self importance and because and of the peaceful era we live it can’t be corrected. This is why fate will never favour you.”

“Fuck you M’Khabye! And fuck your fate! This is bound to be mine one day.”

And those who displeased him now wouldn’t last long in his kingdom. The master was logical and pragmatic. How he confided in a nut jobs like the shaman was beyond him.

Veiss stormed out but he could still hear her.

“Perhaps,” M’Khabye said. “After all fate is a fickle thing and may yet shine upon you but not now, not when you crave it so, not when you think the future is owed to you like some corporate brat.”

“You’ll regret talking to me like this!” Veiss roared over his shoulder as he started the long trek down the mountain.

Deep down he knew it wasn’t wise to antagonize the shaman. Her words carried significant weight within the organization but his blood was boiling, his ego was wounded and his mouth had grown a mind of its own.

“You can’t even take this bit of criticism!” The old hag shouted back. “Your insecurities will be your downfall young Veiss not mine!”