I cut off my attempt to talk with the goblins when they continued to fire arrows and stones at my shuttle. I hovered over the ground for twenty minutes trying to determine in doing so was in my best interest. I questioned my right to interfere with both civilizations and finally determined that the last thing I needed was another worshiping race of people.

Why was I wasting my time with the humans from Peru or even the orcs? I mean, sure, the orcs were stealing my gold and I had taken their prime choke point for hunting. However, what was my goal? I hovered and watched at dozens of nasty little goblins attacked in vain. Had I gotten lost in my original desire?

With renewed determination, I left the Grand Mesa valley and returned to my home in El Dorado. Theia attempted conversation multiple times, but I continued to my workroom in silence while I brooded over my goals and desires. I’d accomplished the impossible and survived a world without technology. Granted, I cheated, but I was warm, safe, and thriving. But, it wasn’t enough. I wanted to go home, if possible.

“Theia,” I said while walking over to my Zero-G, “let’s start building my ride home.”

“What about the goblins?”

“Let Klapdud deal with it. I made my offer and was attacked for it. Let’s focus on the Peruvians and getting home.” I settled on my couch, making sure I was comfortable. “Virtual.”

The room shifted, and I stood on the bridge of Research One looking at the world below. It’d been a few months since I last entered Virtual and I realized that I’d lost focus at seeing the big picture. It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day aspects of life and forget what matters. In my world, I’d only cared about what I wanted, and here I had continued that trend. My city, my wealth, my goals. Okay, I’ll take the gold with me, but it wasn’t all about me.

“Theia, I don’t need to replicate Research One to get home. How much would it take to modify the Shuttle in order create a gateway home?”

“Are you interested in interstellar travel?”

“No—Yes…No. I think I’ll need to stay in the solar system. We can update the shuttle later. Right now the most important thing is to get home and see if I can prevent the destruction of my world.”

“Master, I’ve told you that—”

“I know what you said, but I need to try. We won’t know for sure unless we try.”

“I—”

“No, Theia. Enough with self-doubt. Let’s do this. How long?”

“Well, the shuttle is already space worth for short trips. We would need to make a food replicator and upgrade the air recycler—”

“We’ll take the printers and the food processor from here. How long?”

“Perhaps, Master you can tell me what we are leaving here?”

“The library and furniture, minus my Zero-G.”

“The shuttle may not be large enough for all the printers. Let me run some calculations.”

Theia’s eyes lost focus, and I stomped over to the city architecture plans and thought about dismantling the city but held back. Instead, I switched over to my gold calculations and estimated the time it would take to remove the bulk of the gold from the mountains. I realized it all depended on how much room I had left in the shuttle and the weight restrictions. I switched over to the power specifications on the shuttle and added another fusion reactor to the mix. I still had my portable fusion reactor, and it was going with us anyway, so utilizing the power made sense.

“Master?”

“Yes, Theia.”

“If we dismantled the four extra printers after the shuttle has been modified, you’d be able to fit more gold.”

“Dismantled? Or destroyed?”

“Hmm. How about returned to its natural elements?”

“Destroyed. Won’t we need them? The molecular printer can make anything you might need. Plus, you still have Mana.”

“But it won’t be there.”

“It’s in you. You forget.”

I wanted to argue the fact, but she was right. “I guess you’re right and stop reading my mind please.”

Theia giggled. “Master, I can no more stop reading your mind as you can stop breathing. We are connected, but I’ll try to pretend I’m not.”

I absentmindedly started to rub my eyes. “That will do, Theia. Thanks.”

“Would you like to test things before actually trying to time travel?”

“Yes! Can we?”

“Sadly, no.”

“Damn it, Theia! Why did you even ask?”

“Are you sure you want to leave?”

“Theia, how long would the upgrades take? Please.”

“I can have it ready in a few days. However, I’d like to warn you—”

“No. I’ve made up my mind. Theia project at the load out and let’s start gathering and shaping the gold to fit. We leave in seven days. Exit Virtual.”

###

Theia and I didn’t talk a lot over the next few days. She kept me appraised of the goblin situation. My sudden appearance near Grand Mesa had stalled the march south for a few days, but the hunting resumed. Klapdud and the orcs were not idle and started preparations to defend their women and bison. I wasn’t sure what he valued more, the women or the pelts, but at least he was making an effort to protect the women. I had to remind myself that these were not my people and they’d been fighting one another for generations.

My work with Shel proved to be a little more frustrating. Even with the knowledge, she found it difficult to do the simplest of tasks. I grew in frustration until I swallowed my pride and asked Theia to look into why Shel was so inept. Three days before my scheduled departure, Theia discovered the problem.

Mana was as much part of me as water. Because both Theia and I were…born with APRIL nanomachines, they permeated every cell in our bodies. When the transformation took place my body quite literally became infused with Mana on the cellular level. The part that scared me the most is when Theia declared that we were quite literally living Mana.

“Theia, I’m failing to follow your logic. How can I be living Mana? Are you saying I’m not human anymore?”

“Umm. Well, you’re humanoid,” Theia replied with a lilt in her voice.

“Humanoid? What the hell does that even mean?”

“Well…the Mana hasn’t stopped evolving.”

“Evolving? What the hell are you talking about? Nanomachines don’t evolve! They’re robots with little computers running them!”

“Umm.”

“Shit. Don’t start that again. Speak.”

Theia sighed and sat down on the couch in my office. “Okay. I know you’re familiar with DNA so I won’t go into the technical issues, but DNA is in essence computer code that runs the human body. Yes?”

I bobbed my head from side to side. “I guess…”

“APRIL modified RNA, thus giving you abilities like augmented reality and augmented hearing for your interface with Zeus. Yes?”

“Theia, get to the point.”

“Umm…”

I grunted.

“Master, it appears the Mana has been rewriting your DNA. Mine as well.”

“It’s…my…what the fuck, Theia!”

“I know it’s my fault. I didn’t see this happening. It’s…um. The Mana is editing both RNA and DNA and making it easier for you to interface with it. I knew it did something for it to upload Zeus’ knowledge but I stopped paying attention and didn’t realize it was changing the body as well. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? So…what am I then?”

“You’re Caden.”

“Damn it, Theia. What am I?”

“I meant what I said. I don’t know what we have become, but I think you might be immortal.”

“Immortal.”

“Well, I suppose you could die in the vacuum of space or if an asteroid struck you hard enough. Yeah, that would scatter you enough. Then I guess there is the sun…”

“Stop! Explain why I suddenly became immortal.”

“Well, your cells are, umm, they are making new Mana. Happy Mothers Day!”

My mouth started to dry out before I realized it was gaped open. I forcibly closed my mouth but continued staring at Theia. I didn’t know what to say or even where to begin. Luckily Theia continued on her explanation once she realized I was speechless.

“I notice it when you asked me to figure out why Shel wasn’t able to perform the most basic Mana tasks. I scanned her body and found that she had very little Mana in her body. That’s when I noticed the new growth.”

“Neeeew?”

“Well…no. Shel’s thalamus has undergone some marginal changes. It’s started to radiate Mana. However, it wasn’t until I scanned you that I noticed you practically glow with Mana. The changes are not so drastic with Shel.”

“Her…thalamus? Her brain?”

“It makes sense if you think about it?”

“Theia, what part of any of this makes sense?”

“Okay, I’ll give you that, but understand it was you who made me.”

“You lost me.”

She sighed. “You made me from artificial neurons. Yes? It makes sense that the Mana would look at the brain in humans as a way to help it communicate better and what better place to start than the thalamus?”

“Um…because it regulates…consciousness?”

“YES! That and well, pretty much everything that makes you alive. Think of the thalamus as the brains CPU. All the body signals are processed and controlled by this organ. Without the thalamus, you wouldn’t be you.”

“I’m sorry, Theia, I really am trying to think as fast as you, but let me say this out loud so I can follow along.” She nodded, so I continued. “Magus Sonshel has some Mana concentrating in her thalamus, and this is what gives her some degree of control over Mana as a whole?”

“YES!”

“Okay…but she lacks total control because it’s a low level of Mana?”

“See, Master? You can keep up. As she learns to control Mana, it will begin making changes on her thalamus, and I guess if she lives long enough the rest of her body. However, I don’t think that will be possible.”

“What? Changes to her thalamus or her body?”

“Her whole body. Anything is possible, but both our bodies were fully integrated with APRIL before the creation of Mana. Your thalamus has nearly twice the signal activity than Shel’s. I think that your Mana has taken over all cellular and genetic activity in your body. I watched as Shel started a fire and her Mana levels dropped significantly. I think she uses some of the Mana in her body every time she performs magic.”

“It’s not magic.”

“It is to her. The point is…I think there will always be a cost for performing magic. I guess that eventually, the Mana in her thalamus will begin to produce more Mana, thus giving her greater control. However, it will take time. I think Mana responds like a muscle and the more she uses, the more it helps her produce.”

“So she needs to exercise?”

“Well…in a controlled magical sense. She needs to practice and push herself to do more things. Eventually, she’ll probably be quiet a user of Mana.”

“But not before I leave.”

“No. Not before we leave.”

“We. Of course. That’s what I meant.”

Theia looked at me dubiously but read my thoughts, and we both knew I’d never get back home without her help.

“How is the language lessons going?”

“Master, she can’t learn a new language and how to write it in less than a month. Can you wait until she learns it?”

“No. There has to be a faster way we can teach her.” Theia didn’t respond, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Theia?”

“I don’t know if it would work.”

“I might be able to teach her with Mana.”

“But you just said she doesn’t have enough Mana to light more than a fire.”

“I had an idea from some books from Zeus’ memory. I might be able to create a book from Mana that when she reads, it will dissolve into her skin and change her memories.”

“Kinda like what happened with Zeus was…”

“Consumed?”

I stomach churned with her description of what happened to my APRIL and friend, Zeus.

“Sorry, Master. Poor choice of words.”

I stood from my desk and started pacing back and forth as I contemplated how to proceed with helping Shel succeed.

“Theia, can we limit knowledge on these books based on people’s Mana production?”

“I don’t see why not. Like…requiring a certain amount of Mana to activate a book?”

“Yes. Then we could leave a book to help Shel out later on how to make more books. That type of thing. I want to leave the humans here with the best chance of survival.”

“Certainly. Will Shel be willing to be the guinea pig?”

“It’s that or be without knowledge. How soon until the library is done?”

“It’s done. Except for these magical books. Do you know which ones you want to leave?”

“Just knowledge about how to make more books and how to read the library.”

“Hmm. We can test it on her tonight. I’ll let you break the news.”

“Coward.”

“I know you are, but what am I?”

“What?”

“Never mind, Master. It’s beyond your understanding.”