Nuori woke up. This was a terrible thing as her body immediately informed her that she was not doing particularly well.

In fact it was time to play a game. The search for what doesn't hurt!

Legs? Nope, moving any part of them hurt the rest. Wait,untrue! she could move her toes the tiniest amount before inducing agony but that was not enough for her purposes. Torso? She didn’t know when she picked up half of those injuries, but they were, in fact, there so that's a no. Head? Fuck no! Why would she even ask herself that? She was fairly certain her face was pulp at the moment.

Arms? Ehhhh maybe, her right hand was done, and she received some blows to that arm as well. The left arm though? That was promising. It hadn’t been the biggest target after the dislocation and while another blow had pretty much destroyed her shoulder she finally found a winner.

Her left hand.

Moving her fingers was completely fine and so she started the very important task of rubbing them together. She tried with all her willpower to focus on this task and feeling completely. She failed terribly, but Nuori thought the effort at least helped her.

She continued in this losing battle until someone gently clasped her hand.

Nuori opened her eyes to look at the person, felt extreme pain, immediately closed her eyes and decided to never attempt such a foolish endeavor again.

She then opened her mouth to speak but could barely croak anything out. She also started coughing. Which sucked. She might have broken a rib or just had too many injuries, either way each expulsion of air hurt her face and chest sharply.

Nuori then started doing something really terrible. Each person has a different reaction to stress and pain. Some get calm, some get nervous, others just get angry. Nuori?

She laughed.

She laughed and giggled. Involuntarily shifting and moving her body, everything turning into agony. The more pain, the more she laughed. One positive, the heightened pain eventually became her new normal and she was able to calm herself down.

After that, a glass came to her mouth. She did her best to drink down the water, only a bit dribbling down her face.

Once the glass left she made a small sound only to see if she could. Having her answer she proceeded with a delightly eloquent analysis of the situation.

“Yep”

“Yeah” Spark dutifully responded.

“Spark?”

“Yes?” He gripped her hand again.

“This sucks.”

“You sure?”

“Yep”

“That sucks.” Spark squeezed her hand a bit. “I put some pain nullifiers in the water. Decent stuff apparently, should kick in soon.”

“Well that’ll be go- Shit”

Nuori opened her eyes, he didn’t give her ‘decent’ nullifiers, she didn’t even feel a damn thing. Something as fast acting and completely nullifying as this was generally only used during reconstructive surgery. This might be problematic.

She looked at Spark. “Who’d you get this from kiddo?”

“Dyrian” He replied apprehensively

“What for?” Her eyes narrowed.

“You wouldn't happen to believe he gave it to me out of the goodness in his heart?” Spark tried hopefully.

She just looked at him skeptically.

Spark shrugged. “You were out for a long time. We talked and came to an agreement.”

His vague answer set off alarm bells in Nuori’s head.“What did you have to trade?”

“I didn’t give him anything.” He replied defensively

“Okay… what did you trade though?” She raised an eyebrow at him. Spark sighed.

“We talked. Talked about a lot of things. I gave him a different perspective, he gave me the medicine.”

Somehow I don’t think it’s that simple.

“What did you talk about?”

Spark shrugged again. “I’d have to sift through my memories to find out exactly but in general? The idea of the war, Synths, Souls and…” He looked at her seriously. “He’s also going to come and talk to you about our situation.”

“My situation.” Nuori corrected him.

“Nope! I got Dyrian to officially recognize me as your kid!” He proudly stated to her growing look of horror. “Oh don’t look like that, I was always going to do it someday and with your ‘battle of penance’ I could only help you if we're recognized as family.”

“Spark... “ A part of her was glad but most of her was concerned.

Births in the Empire were extremely rare as the population was held at a stable amount, typically hovering a shade under two hundred and sixty thousand. This was due to the lack of aging within the population, if things weren’t kept in check the population would grow exponentially and supply issues would soon arise. Everytime a person dies a draw is held, the person drawn raises the new child. All Synths have to choose Synth children, but Humans have a choice of either having a biological or synthetic child.

Synths with Human parents were derided as ‘slaves’ by some Synthetics, apparently they can’t fathom a Human valuing a Synthetic child as much as a bio one.

“Won’t other Synths…” She trailed off seeing Spark’s unconcerned look.

“Let them. If they’re going to judge me for having you as a parent I don’t care about them anyway.” He winked at her.

A bit of moisture came to her eyes “You’re a good kid Spark.”

“The best.” he said with a smile and pulled some packets out of his sweater. “I got enough of the pain nullifiers from Dyrian for about five days. After that I’ll have to figure something else out.”

Nuori shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, we can ration them and stretch it out to last longer.”

“Doesn’t work like that mom.”

She smirked “Then I’ll tough it out” She gave his hand a squeeze. “You shouldn't have to pay for my failures.”

“I saw how you were when you woke up.” Spark stared into her eyes. Determined. “I won’t let you go through that.”

“If worst comes to worst I’ll demean myself and play some politics.” She winked at him. “I Figure I’ll have offers coming from all over to use my influence as the translator. While I didn’t want to take any before, there will probably be some that align with my views anyways.” She explained

“No.” Spark stated sadly. “You won’t be able to do that.”

“Really?” she laughed. “You think people aren’t already lining up to try and manipulate our child leader?” She snorted derisively. “They’re already making the plans, we just have to sit here and wait for them to come.”

“Dyrian seemed sure.” Spark told her.

“Dyrian’s one of them, Spark.” She said dismissively. “Not a particularly unbiased opinion, he just wants you malleable to his goals.”

“Mom, listen.” Spark stared her down. “Dyrian is not an idiot, you know this. He knows that you're not an idiot. He knows that you’ll be looking for ways to improve your situation. Still he seemed absolutely sure that you would not be able to get the medicine on your own.”

“Mom,” His voice became more firm as he continued. “You need my help, and frankly, you’re in no position to stop me from trying.”

Nuori spent a bit trying to take it in. Spark never talked to her like that, which meant he honestly thought she was being unreasonable. As much as she hated bringing him into this, she trusted his judgement.

“Okay” She finally said.

“I’m sorry mom, but you need help, I know you-”

“I said okay Spark.” Nuori cut him off. “I’m sorry too. Thank you… for helping”

“Hey.” he smiled “What’s family for?”

“Unpaid labour?”

“Exactly!” Spark replied enthusiastically

“Damn. The Synths were right about you folks with Human parents.”

After that exchange they both fell silent for a time. Without any pain to make her time completely unbearable Nuori found that being in bed unable to move was quite boring. She decided to strike up a conversation again.

“Why did Dyrian talk to you about souls?” That had concerned her when she first heard it. Quite a few Humans had derision of Synths, calling them soulless husks. Nonsense, but a common enough view. If Dyrian had said something like that to Spark… Nuori would send him an angry letter? She didn’t really have many options for fire and brimstone at the moment.

“He wanted to know our views on them. Synth’s views on souls I mean.” Spark shrugged. “It’s never really come up though so I didn’t have much to say.” He then gave her an anticipatory look as he remembered something. “He did, however, say something that might interest you.”

“Try me.”

“It’s about Turva.”

Oh shit this might actually be good.

Spark smiled when he saw her instant reaction. “Overseer Alliandra apparently commissioned a new research initiative into multiverse theory.” That made sense to Nuori. Dimensional research had been Alliandra’s pet project before coming into her position. “This new research though, was related to Souls. They found that people’s souls are intrinsically intertwined to the fabric of the dimension they reside within. If someone leaves their dimension they will deteriorate within hours, it’s apparently a death sentence.”

“How would they discover that?” Nuori already knew the answer but she didn’t have to like it.

Spark gave a look of distaste. “Experimentation. You know how it is.” Yep. “Anyways, this revelation caused them to look for the connection between souls and the dimensional fabric. They initially found that most souls are negligible, they were barely able to register. So they decided to do some more ‘experimentation’.” He gave her a significant look. “Even with the heavily modified soul of the criminal they used, it barely registered. That didn’t line up with their mathematical projections so they assumed something had to be throwing it off.”

“It took a couple years but they were able to build a room sealed to prevent soul leak. They found that inside of it regular souls were measurable. The modified one? Overwhelmingly powerful in comparison.” He laughed, and put a stupid grin on his face. “They found though, that soul power operates on the same principles as light or gravitational waves. It follows the inverse square law, if you double the distance the intensity is quartered.” Nuori motioned for him to get on with the point.

“The interference they were experiencing was a soul, and that interference was practically constant. They moved instruments all over the system and found that the extremely mild fluctuations pointed to where the culprit is. The Turva system.”

“It’s a soul? It’s sentient?”

Spark nodded.

It couldn’t be… could it? This is near the area…

“Shit” Nuori started giggling. “The mad bastards might have actually fucking did it!” She started laughing hysterically.

“Uhmm… mom?” Spark looked at her in confusion. “Might it be time for one of your history lessons?”

“Yes!” She got out in between giggles. Once she calmed herself down she started.

“Alright, it might not be them, but a few thousand years before the fall a group of people wished to make themselves into gods using soul modifica-”

Just as Nuori started her lecture someone knocked at the door.

“Would you kindly fuck off!” She politely requested of them. History lessons waited for no one!

Except for Dyrian apparently. Who, ignoring her polite request, walked in. He had a smile on his face and waved at Spark.

“Hey kid, looking good.” He turned to her. “Hello Nuori, you look terrible!”

Nuori glared at him. For interrupting history of course. While she couldn’t see her face, the comment was likely more akin to polite observation than insult.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be here long. Just thought I’d drop by to tell you what's going to happen.” Dyrian said nonchalantly.

“I was giving Spark a history lesson.” She stated, still glaring.

“And you can continue after I leave.” He replied not affected by her glare at all. “I won’t be long and this isn’t a discussion.”

Nuori sighed “What do you want from me?”

“I want nothing from you Nuori, I’m here because I made a deal with the kid” He nodded over to Spark who was trying to be inconspicuous. “Also because I like you, I figured I should save you from getting into trouble.”

“How?” Nuori was a bit confused.

“Alliandra had a plan. She made a miscalculation and she’ll want to correct it.”

“I’m the miscalculation?”

“Yep! I think she forgot that you’re a person, you know?” He chuckled a bit. “She’s odd like that, she can understand people extraordinarily well, if she tries. You though? To her you were just the translator, a tool. She forgot that you might have feelings on policy.” He pointed at her. “Your actions at the arena have reminded her.”

He saw the growing concern on Nuori’s face. “Don’t worry about that. I don’t think you’ll disappear, you’re needed. The people who want to influence you though?” He wiggled his hand a bit. “Aliie doesn’t do half measures, I’ve stayed alive with opposing goals to her long enough to know that I’ll want nothing to do with you.”

“Why did you make the move at the arena then?” She questioned him. “If you’re scared of Alliandra, why do something so blatant?”

“Oh Nuori.” He gave her a wide smile. “She didn’t care about that” He rubbed his chin. “In fact I think she was quite happy with that little bit of ridiculousness.”

Nuori thought that was kinda wishful thinking. “She’s opposed going to war at every vote, she always calls it unwinnable.”

“Maybe that means she doesn’t think it’s unwinnable anymore then.” He raised his hands to the side and shrugged as if questioning the absurdity of it all.

“But-”

“No more!” He raised a silencing hand. “I’m here for a reason. You’re about to be visited by five of the ten council members I imagine.” He started counting them off with his hand. “First, who won’t. I don’t count myself as I’m here in an advisory capacity.” He winked. “Wyndra won’t, unless she’s an idiot. I told her not to at least, but some of my partners in the faction have gotten themselves killed in the past due to chronic stupidity.” He sighed.

“Yestro and Hvaldi also won’t.” He grinned at Spark “Your boy’s the one that convinced me of that.”

“What? I didn’t say-” Spark started surprised.

“You told me a bit about Synth thought processes, it’s enough for me to figure it out.” Dyrian told him then turned to Nuori. “This is why I want to work with the kid, I don’t understand Synths but I’ll need to if I’m going to lead them.”

“Lead them? Nuori asked for clarification.

“Did you think I’d sit out the fight I’m pushing for? We’ll have to build up our industry over a decade or two but once we’re on war footing I’m going to attempt to gain an admiralship. Shouldn’t be too difficult with my current position.”

“You seem confident a war will happen.”

“It will.” He said with no further explanation. “Now that’s four of the council. Hinkle won’t show, I’m not sure he even knows what's going on here. Terrick and Falia will probably come together, they’re idealists who will likely prey on your better nature, possibly offer some incentives or rewards. Ky will outright threaten you and Spark. So classless that man, it will be why he doesn’t last long.”

“Tovadin is good at this stuff, he’ll wield both the carrot and the stick. You’ll probably be tempted to accept his offers, they’ll seem safe and reasonable while providing ample reward.” He gave her a serious look “Agree to nothing. Please.”

“That leaves Alliandra then.” Nuori said

“That leaves Alliandra.” Dyrian agreed. “She’ll come last.” He looked down at the ground. “She’ll probably just tell you a story…” He looked up with a faraway look on his face. “When you get down to it, I’m excited to send people to their death just because it’ll be something different...” A rueful grin came to his face “I think that might make me a bad person.” His grin slowly subsided and he stood up. “Allie would do anything to ensure Humanity has a future.” Dyrian looked Nuori in the eyes. “I know she’s a monster.”

Dyrian’s mirth suddenly returned and he skipped towards the door, stopping and turning just at the exit.

“Good luck girl.” He bowed. “We certainly live in interesting times.”