“Do we really have the time to waste here, fluttering around like some busy fly?” Adler asks as I shadow her around the room. After Eshya and I returned from our own trip, I decided to go on a small journey of self-discovery by visiting all the people I love and making the most of the moment.

“A busy fly has no choice in how it wastes its time. I was drawn here by your amorous scent.”

“That doesn’t sound as good as you might think.”

“It’s better than saying your stink has summoned a swarm of flies,” I reply.

“Flies around here have a measure more dignity,” Adler replies, “They know not to sexually harass people at the very least.”

“Smart flies? What’s next, suing a mosquito for giving you malaria?”

“Disease isn’t so much a problem here,” Adler says. “It so utterly strange to think that such small creatures, like bacteria and viruses, are capable of killing more developed creatures in a low mana environment.

“Regardless, isn’t there something else you should be doing right now?”

“I’m smitten with you,” I say, drifting closer to her. “I can do what I please, and I’m pleased to share my time with you.”

“With everything going on, you’re willing to waste your time?” She asks.

“Is time spent on romance wasted?” I ask. “I think it helps to stabilise a person’s character. It gives them a reason to live, and it allows us to ground ourselves in a culture that gives us something greater than the infinite cycle of consuming mana and claiming power.”

“That sounds all very good,” Adler says, rubbing at her temple as her tail whips back and forth. “It’s just that I’m trying to focus on my work at the moment. I’m sure that any of the others will find some time for you if you want to play about.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask, hovering over her shoulder.

She growls at me, freezing as she realizes what she’s doing.

“Sorry, that… would that be a beastly behaviour? Should it be?” She asks, her voice quiet. “I still don’t know how we should judge these things.”

“I prefer honesty,” I say, wrapping an arm over her shoulder. “It’s all communication. If I’m being a bother, then growl and let me know it. If you don’t like me touching you, then push me away, and if you want to be alone, then say it and I’ll give you some space.”

“Didn’t I already ask you for space?” She asks.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Her tail whips back and forth as she bites at her lip and her eyes shift about as she whirls through a series of conflicting thoughts. Shadows hang under her eyes, partly from stress, and partly from staying awake for longer than she likely should.

“Stay,” she finally lets herself say. “Maybe it’ll be easier to bounce these thoughts off of you, so please let me be annoying and whine for a little without causing me more trouble.”

I nod quietly and take a seat across from her. It doesn’t quite feel right, so I pull my chair closer to hers until we’re in reach of one another.

“You already know just how much that you’ve put me through,” she says, lifting a knee to her chest and hugging it tight, “The loss of my collar… it’s showed me everything that I was, and the lies that I was forced to live. Now, I’m free of it, but… the greatest power in the universe is built on lies and deceit.

“We’re walking a dangerous path, Kyra. It’s so, so very easy to destroy the good that’s here. To destroy all the good that the Unified States has brought to the universe, and it’s so difficult to make something better, especially while we’re weak.”

“Which is why I’m working to make us stronger,” I say. “It’ll take years, I know, but we will change things.”

“Sure, but what does that strength cost us?” She asks. “The war with Loekan to take this cavern, it was violent and bloody, and it was evil. I don’t want to be a part of that sort of evil.”

“Then why are you still with us?” I ask softly. “The awful things that I’ve done don’t haunt me as perhaps they should. I can justify it all easily. It was out of necessity. Either we hunt and grow stronger, or we become the hunted and die out.”

“It’ll be necessary again tomorrow, and the day after as well,” Adler says. “When does it change?”

“It doesn’t,” I say. “We aren’t alien to the rules of nature, no god has divined us the right to rule over others. If we want to make the rules we can only do so by playing nature’s games. Those at the top make the rules for the people below them.

“The way I see it, the rules of my empire and the rules of the universe are two entirely separate topics. Within our borders where we have power, all citizens must restrain themselves to be worthy of the rights that we offer them.”

“What justifies us making these rules?” Adler asks.

“Strength,” I answer her simply. “The reason why we can ensure the rights of our citizens is because we have the strength to enforce our rules. I won’t pretend to have some greater divine right. If someone stronger comes along, I lose the right to rule.”

“You’re okay with that?”

“No, but I don’t have a choice, do I?” I ask. “It’s the immutable rules of the universe. I could go on about how the concept of ‘strength’ is complicated. It can come from numbers, back on Earth that’s particularly important and we had to develop complex governments to utilise that power in full. It can come from stealth and speed. If a person is fast enough or quiet enough, then no one can catch them to force them into submission.

“Then there is the classic strength that you’ll find on a battlefield. The one who can stand after the battle is fought and can move on to the next one without showing a moment’s vulnerability.”

“So… we can commit any evil so long as it’s against something or someone outside of our own empire?” Adler asks. “Any evil or cruelty is permitted?”

“Ultimately we make the rules for ourselves,” I say. “So long as someone stronger doesn’t come along to dictate their own subjective rules and force them upon us like Arduelle has, to her own limited degree.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the one quietly listening to me go on about morals and ethics?” Adler asks, setting her eyes on me without moving from her seat.

“You can always just silence me through force,” I suggest with a smirk, encouraging her to fight with me.

She rubs her eyes and kicks out at me. I grab her foot and pull while she slaps at me, and kicks with her other foot.

After a short tussle, I’ve set her down on my lap as she breathes in exhaustion.

“All of that, what you said. It’s foundational.” Adler says. “It’s how wild beasts interact with their environment, but I must admit that I’ve let myself become lost in the more complex arenas of thought. What use is an ethical code if it is completely removed from the foundation of reality?”

“It lets you look down upon the ignorant, stupid beasts below your majestic self,” I suggest.

“It’s not much use at all,” Adler says, ignoring my comment.

“Accepting the simple foundation, that we must appreciate that all moral codes are only as persistent as the strength that it’s bound to, it would be easy to justify anything. Why don’t we?”

“Because there are some things that suck, and we don’t want to live a sucky life?” I ask.

“We don’t want to live a sucky life.” She agrees. “The most powerful beasts prove that it’s entirely practicable to thrive without morals, so we live with morals because we want to. I’m not sure I’m happy with that conclusion.”

“Why not?” I ask. “I’m nice to you because I like to see you smile, not because it’s some moral mandate that I must treat you well.”

“If I was ugly, and you had no interest in me?”

“It’s impossible,” I answer her.

“Then let’s discuss the impossible world,” Adler presses.

“That’s improbable.”

“Improbable?” She asks.

“I’m here to flirt and play around, not discuss the world in which you’re some ugly stranger. Ugh, even worse, a world where you’re a man? No, let us do away with all such thoughts.”

“Only after we’re done investigating this topic,” she presses. “In a world where I’m a man.”

“Ugh-”

“Have some dignity, Kyra. In a world where I’m a man, would you treat me with all the same kindness?”

“Certainly not,” I answer. “I’d never invite you to my bedroom for one.”

“Kyra.” Adler’s voice is firm, as her eyes demand that I return to the intended topic.

“I wouldn’t be as nice, but I’d treat you to the same rights.”

“Why?”

“I can recognise you as a peer.”

“Why?”

“Because you look, sound, and seem to be a peer intellectually and emotionally.”

“What do you mean by that?” She asks, her voice returning to a lecturing state.

“Intelligence and emotional bonds are important. Something too stupid can’t respect rules, or the rights of others and a being without the ability to forge emotional bonds is likely to break the rules for its own perceived advantage.”

“Does it help that our features are rather similar? Skin, hair, faces, and the like?”

“It helps with the initial meeting, but I’ve met a few stranger people like Bessy who aren’t much like myself, but they’re still people worthy of rights and dignity. At least by my measure, I already know that Arduelle doesn’t quite see it the same.”

Adler nods slowly, her eyes drifting closed as she rests her head on my side.

I know that the questions we’re running through aren’t some new topic for her to address, and it’s not going to lead her to some revolution in the study of morals. Sometimes it’s important to walk back over the path that you’re already familiar with, and that’s all that she’s doing. She’s seeing where these morals come from and finding where she believes we should set our own.

Humans back on Earth generally don’t consider animals like elephants, dolphins, and dogs to be worthy of similar rights to humans. There are a thousand justifications, but ultimately, I believe the reason why we don’t give them as much respect is much simpler. They’re not powerful enough to matter.

The dolphins won’t likely organise themselves into a fighting army to resist humans seizing their territory and stealing their fish. Elephants would make a terrifying army, but they never make a true effort to achieve it.

What’s more, without communication, and with limited intelligence, it would be difficult to get them to respect all the rules human civilisation introduces. Ultimately, human civilisation is not designed for the sake of other animals.

Much the same, we cannot fit into a civilisation forged by the Dungeons for themselves. Not as anything more than pets, at the very least.

What rights should we respect, and when can a person be deemed worthy of them?

Is a smart rat equal to a human?

What about a water flea?

Is a single human life equal to god?

What rights can we afford to offer what people? When does a cow or a carrot deserve emancipation from the farm? When does a pet deserve to be freed from their master?

All questions that we must find answers to, but I doubt we’ll ever find any absolute answers. Instead, we’ll have to find something that’s just good enough and try to improve it from there.

“Kyra, why is the world like this?” Adler asks, blinking away quiet tears. “Why are so many lives worthless?”

“Life is too common here,” I’m sure she already knows the answer. “There are limited resources, limited food, limited water, and only so much land to settle. There are too many people to share it all between us.”

“Do you think we can ever change the rules?” She asks. “Do you think we can make a kinder universe if we grow powerful enough? A world where there is enough for everyone?”

“If there’s a possibility, I’m sure we’ll find it,” I answer her, hugging her close.

She cares too much.

Or maybe I just care too little.

She falls asleep resting on my side, and as I watch her dreams a little guiltily, I slip into sleep myself. In the world beyond waking, we make new worlds together where reality cannot find us.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 44,394 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 22,069 / 30,271 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered Space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)