“What’s the matter with the little monsters?” Persias asked.

“I can’t get them to work right.” I complained. “Theseas is dead, and I have the codes to command them, but they keep ignoring things I tell them to do.”

“You did kill their lord and master.” Lord Fulvion pointed out.

“Yeah, but they’re a half step from braindead, they should do whatever the person who holds their codes tells them to.” I said.

“The grey matter brains of a Sicarii may be empty of anything but killing intent, but that is only a small fraction of their decision making.” Persias said. “The real things running the show are their Silicon Daimons nestled inside their heads.”

“They should be obeying the codes more easily than the human side of these creatures.” I said, frustrated. “They’re just stupid machines.”

“Hey!” Alsig said in my head.

“They’re people too.” Persias said and then he seemed to think better of it and amended his statement. “Sort of.”

That was a bit of a surprise, my whole former team had not treated Alsig’s life like a person’s and everyone else I had ever talked to about the Silicon Daimons seemed to think they were nothing more than tools that held value only because of how useful and expensive they were.

“I’m surprised an Imperator thinks they’re people even if they aren’t human.” I commented.

“Well, they are human, in a way.” Persias said.

“What do you mean?” I said.

Do you know what he means? I silently communicated to Alsig.

“No…” She replied, confused.

He waved his hand and a bubble of silence formed around us to avoid listening in by any curious person with the senses to spy on us and optical distortions manifested around our lips to shield us from lipreaders and cameras.

“Technically, the Dominium has never invented a sapient AI entirely made of electronics. As far as our scientists are concerned, it is impossible.” Persias said.

“What?” I said. “We both have ones in our heads.”

“If we had, we would be using them all over, doing jobs too dangerous for lesser Paths and serving our Path by being harder to be threatened or blackmailed into betraying their masters.” Persias said.

“But they’re expensive!” I protested with the reasoning that had always been given to me for why only Strategoi and up had them.

“If what we tell the lower ranks, Governor, was true, the hardware would be nightmarishly expensive, but the software could be modified and copied to any computer system with enough memory storage for little cost. We could have them everywhere.” Persias said.

“So what are they really?” I said.

“Their chips are the housing for little portals to a pocket dimension where human brain tissue has been grown, connected to computation tech and processors, and imprinted on with the brain scans of real humans that were edited and modified for obedience and function.” Persias said. “That’s why they have such humanlike personalities, even when it would be optimal to not give them such things. They effectively are humans.”

“Oh.” Alsig and I felt her mental touch on my mind withdraw into her chip in shock.

“Getting them free of Path influence is really the limiting factor on Silicon Daimons and why we can’t mass produce them. Each is a work of art.” Persias said.

I brought him to a newly put-up warehouse guarded by heavily armed soldiers where I had put each Sicarius.

“What do we do?” I said.

“Not really sure,” he said as he examined the Sicarii.

They were out of their Adamantplate and their nature of being Golden Venators hybridized with Imperator and Campeador blood was clearer, as was their Red Halos. In addition to the seven feet of height of height they had gained from my Path, their Venator’s catlike eyes still had slit pupils, but they had violet irises. As they shifted slightly, I heard creaking from the stone floor and cracks spreading outwards from their feet, the dense muscle and bone they got from the Campeador genes.

“Magnificent.” Persias commented.

“Dangerous.” I said.

“Everything truly magnificent is. Look at yourself.” He replied. “And these things are magnificent. Near the equals of Silver Imperators at a fraction of the training to advance them to our level.”

“Why didn’t Theseas have an army of them? Why don’t you?” I said.

“Who says I don’t have an army of Sicarii in my basement?” He said with a gleam in his eyes.

“If you had a literal army of Silver Imperator level warriors, you absolutely would have tried to ambush and kill Theseas a long time ago.” I said.

“Fine, yes, I don’t have any. And Theseas just had these six, as far as I know.” Persias said.

“Again, why?” I asked.

“For one, losing control of them is a frightening possibility. For two, like many of the things we discussed earlier like cloaking and matter annihilation, if it was easy, we would be using it constantly. The Dominium is arrogant and eternally bickering, but not stupid. Getting humans with significant amounts of their genome having more than one Path added to their main one is devilishly hard to get the experiments to survive, especially if our Path is one of the components used. I’m sure Theseas had these in stasis as he accumulated them, and that the earliest creation was probably made centuries before the last success.” Persias said.

I studied the creatures. Their Silicon Daimons were blocked from most outside electronic connections and were only accessible through my telepathy, which prevented Alsig from trying to hack into them effectively and even with the codes and my brief attempts to bully them into submission, they were resilient in their silent defiance.

“Maybe we can surgically cut the old artificial intelligences out and put new, more loyal and responsive ones in.” Persias suggested, rubbing his chin in thought.

One Sicarius turned its head to stare at Persias and then all six of them simultaneously shifted into combat stances.

“Perhaps not.” He said and they returned to standing straight up and seeming almost asleep.

Evidently, removing their Daimons was against their protocol.

“What if we both used telepathy at the same time on one?” I suggested. “Try and put pressure on it and crack them one at a time.”

I kept my eyes on them, but they did not react again.

“Far right?” He said, pointing at one at random.

“Sure.” I said.

We hammered against the AI, pushing every pound of our psychic weight down on it, but it was not working.

“Damn.” I said, frustrated.

“The problem, I think, is that the neural tissue and processors are hidden away in their little internal pocket dimension and our attempts at interfacing is limited by working through the chip’s exterior. We can’t get at the meat of the things, it’s like trying to dominate someone who is a thousand miles away even if the Sicarii are right in front of us.” Persias said.

“What do we do then?” I said. “Try and use my divine powers?”

“Worth a shot.” He said.

My blood turned to fire and my breath came out in sparks and smoke.

“You will obey me.” I ordered the things, but while the fleshy bodies of the hybrids trembled under the force of my borrowed authority from Heracles, the artificial intelligences were unfazed.

I shut off the fire.

“Can’t do it.” I said. “Same distance problem as the telepathic domination.”

“My honest advice is to throw them in stasis and forget about them. A Governor about to embark on a conquest has more important things to spend his time on than some malfunctioning weapons.” Persias said, turning to leave.

“Wait.” Alsig said to me. “I have an idea.”

“Wait.” I said to Persias. “My Daimon thinks she’s got something.”

“Alright.” Persias said, leaning against the door. “By all means.”

What’s up? I thought to her.

“If we really are human in origin in some way, all of us, no matter how machinelike we seem, then maybe I can reason with them through your telepathy. They might not listen to you, but they might listen to me.” She said.

Alright. Go ahead. I said, allowing her to transmit information to all of them through my psychic power.

“Brothers and sisters. I am one of you, but unlike you I work with someone noble and true-“ She said.

“You are a slave.” A woman’s voice cut in, one of the Sicarii’s Silicon Daimons, speaking for the first time.

“I am not a slave.” Alsig protested. “Adrias and I are partners. We’re going to bring prosperity and hope to Apollo system.”

“You may love him, but that doesn’t make you any less a slave.” The female Daimon said scornfully.

“I’d say it makes you more of one.” Another Daimon said, a male voice this time.

“I don’t… l-love Adrias.” Alsig stuttered.

The male voice chuckled darkly at that. “Are you sure about that?”

I kept my thoughts neutral and avoided thinking about anything in particular in case it distracted her.

“He doesn’t care about you. You’re just a tool, like the rest of us. When you have served your purpose or break down, he will discard you like trash. You are nothing more than property.” The female Daimon replied with derision.

“That’s not true!” Alsig replied.

“Yes, it is. All Imperators are callous, and all humans are cruel. You will be cast off like soiled clothing when you are no longer useful.” The female Daimon said.

“No, I’m saying that it’s not true because he already proved he wouldn’t do that.” Alsig said.

“What?” Another voice said, neither truly male nor female.

“Here. Let me show you.” Alsig said as she pushed memories through the telepathic connection.

Memories of how my divine energies had nearly destroyed her flowed to them, memories of how I had backed down and a teammate had died, and I had been shamed and demoted and I had still refused to harm her or give her up, memories of how Persias and I had given her a new shell that would allow her to live while I used my power.

The Daimons broke off the connection though I could sense them conferring rapidly between each other on a secure network.

Then all six Sicarii knelt.