Mask of Humanity

As he entered the safe-place and looked upon those within, he could feel the Modules stirring within him, watching out from his eyes and ears with interest.

‘Perro.’ Nicolai gave the youth a friendly smile as he entered the room, seeing Azure lowering the speakers volume to almost zero.

‘Hey, welcome, uh, welcome back,’ Perro managed a smile of his own in return.

‘Good job with the cameras,’ he said, and Perro’s uncertain smile bloomed into grin. Some urge made Nicolai reach out and ruffle the youth’s hair as he passed by, and he briefly struggled with himself after doing so, confused by his action, until he realised the Mask had caused it. It was fond of Perro, some kind of… paternal urge? Nicolai wasn’t sure. He didn’t particularly mind, however, finding the sensations it gave him interesting.

With his Soul Sense he felt Beth following behind, and she, smirking, mimicked him by also reaching out and ruffling Perro’s hair. The teenager had accepted it from Nicolai, too surprised to react, but he was less accepting of the same from Beth.

‘Hey!’ Perro said, frowning and glaring after her as she walked off, chuckling. That left him open, as Jo came up behind and once again, ruffled his hair.

‘Can you guys not!’ Perro yelled, striking her hand away, and Jo laughed.

With his Soul Sense, Nicolai could practically feel what the teenager was thinking. I’m not a kid! Jo and Beth grinned at Perro and received a glower in response.

Also in the room was Azure, Sara, old Ben, and Katie. The rest appeared to be gone on the hunting trip John had mentioned.

Old Ben was sitting to the side, hunched over a desk, his nose buried in the book Nicolai had allowed him to borrow. There was a rusty helmet with some scratchings on one side of him, and on the other was Kleos, who looked rather miserably bored and sought out Nicolai’s eyes, making a kind of desperate expression only to be poked by old Ben who drew the head’s attention to a passage within the book, asking some question.

Nicolai might have rescued Kleos but he recalled how the head had pretended to be dead when he first introduced it to the group, and opted to leave it be, acting as though he failed to see the desperate look it shot at him.

Sara was sitting with Katie, and had glanced up, frowning, at Nicolai’s arrival but now returned to lecturing the young girl on something. Katie was doing her best to pretend attention and interest, but from his Soul Sense Nicolai gathered Katie was watching stored media through her artificial lenses and her main focus was on nodding and letting out attentive noises at roughly the right moments.

They’d pumped much of the new furniture with air, and Azure was on a large inflated sofa, the console for the cameras on a wooden table in front of her. The wire trailing from the door connected to the console, and another wire disappeared away from it up the stairs. Her head raised to meet Nicolai’s gaze as he circled around her to look at the console, and he saw the two camera feed’s on either side of it, and the charger icon lit up. He clapped her on the shoulder. ‘Well done,’ he told her, then started placing the numerous items he was carrying, polearm, bags of liquid, the new bolt-action rifle, on a table nearby.

She shook his hand off then rose, with some difficulty and plastic squeaking, from the sofa. She did a big display of stretching her back and groaning. ‘It was a big job, right Perro?’ she said to the youth, who pulled a face which suggested the contrary. Azure ignored that. ‘You know, we never discussed payment.’ She grinned at Nicolai, hands on her hips, then she looked him up and down, frowning.

‘You’re all… bloody,’ she said, looking at Nicolai and especially Jo, who was settling carefully into a chair, one of the wooden ones.

Sara and Ben perked up at that, appearing to notice for the first time.

‘What happened?’ said old Ben with a frown.

‘Bit of trouble on the way. Undead attacked Jo,’ Nicolai said.

‘Ah,’ old Ben nodded, gazing at Jo with a faint frown which offered minimal sympathy then tucked his head back down.

‘Payment?’ said Azure, her concern replaced once more by eagerness.

Putting up the cameras had, in Nicolai’s view, benefited Perro and Azure more than him, as it would increase their safety and odds of survival. It was also a very minor act and deserved no reward.

But, he’d known Azure would try to get something out of him because that was how she was, and it didn’t bother him in the least. It was all a part of his continuous drive to deepen his bond with the group and win more of them over to his side, culminate in him assuming leadership. These two had done something “for him” and now he would do something for them.

‘Payment?’ he said, raising his eyebrows. ‘For putting up some cameras?’ But he released a tolerant chuckle, his tone contrasting with his words. ‘Well, I suppose you deserve something. I’ve been thinking I ought to teach whoever is interested some tricks with their Seed. That, and how to fly.’

She reacted much as he’d expected she would, eyes rounding, an eager grin overtaking her face.

‘Now? Here?’ she asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

‘We’ll go up top,’ he said, ‘the little tower-top area. Anyone else want to come?’ he raised his voice and looked over to Sara, old Ben and Katie. This was his next immediate goal. He wanted to tick off every easy challenge available to these people, gaining Oma crystals and points-tags, which, inevitably, would fall into his hands.

Old Ben looked up, and appeared somewhat torn, frowning, but ultimately waved a hand. ‘I’m making progress, I’ll stick with this,’ he said.

Sara just let out a little snort. ‘We’ve more important things to do,’ she said.

However, from beside her there came an unhappy little murmur from Katie, who he gathered had paused whatever she’d been watching.

‘I wanna go, too,’ she said, staring pleadingly up at Sara. ‘I wanna fly.’

Sara frowned down at the little girl. Nicolai expected her to snap at her and tell her she was too young, or that it was too dangerous or some such. To his surprise, Sara’s face twisted then she smiled and pinched Katie on the cheek. ‘Okay, little one. For a bit.’

Katie practically exploded up from where she’d been sat.

‘You two come as well,’ said Nicolai to Beth and Jo, who showed some interest too, at least when it came to the idea of flying.

He wanted them there, also, because he didn’t just want to establish closer ties between himself and the Perro and Azure and Sara and Katie. He also wanted for the same to occur between Jo and Beth and the others. If they were accepted properly into the group, they could act as mouthpieces for him. At his core there was a cold, calculating, ancient part and it looked out at them all, and it thought: Weak, but there are uses they can be put to. Easy to control. Some have potential.

Tools in my hand.

But, there was also another reason he was doing all of this, and though it was something that was a little confusing, a little uncertain, it interested him.

His Mask. Even now it clung tight to his Soul, digging in deeper, working at him, giving him phantom urges. Desires to connect, to befriend, to share happy, simple moments. To watch Beth and Jo—who it held a similarly weird paternal attitude towards as it did Perro—make friends and be happy.

He wanted to be human, or at least his Mask did, and it was doing its best to make him feel that he wanted the same. How very novel.

What is this “Mask” you have been thinking of? asked Threat Analysis, all of a sudden.

Nicolai blinked, confused, but after a moments thought he supposed it made sense. His Mask was tied to his Cultivation, separate from the AI’s. Much like the Mark they shouldn’t be able to sense it, only recognise that he could sense it from their understanding of his thoughts.

Something I… grew. I suppose. It is somewhat like you two, he answered.

There’s nothing like me, said Cyberwarfare in a tone of utter confidence. I am alone, untouched, unrivalled. I am Cyberwarfare.

Yes, you are, thought Nicolai, smiling.

He decided to spare Kleos its continued use as old Ben’s Ritual-explainer, figuring the old man should by now have gotten enough info from the head, and took Kleos into his hands as he led the others upstairs and they followed after him in a small train, all of them seeming at least a little excited, except for Sara who exuded strained tolerance.

Old Ben had been only a little upset to see Kleos removed from him, and he was willing to have the console set in front of him to keep an eye on the cameras while the rest of them were upstairs.

The upper area of the safe-place was a small tower-top consisting of a tiled floor of gray stone, and it was circled by a chest-high fortified stone wall with small gaps for defenders to shoot out. One side of it joined into a larger tower of the bastion, the small guard-wall merging there with the large bulk of the neighbouring tower that rose above them.

It was a sunny day, though occasionally shadowed as large clouds drifted slovenly across the sky. The sun was just passing its mid-point. The tower-top was overall well hidden and protected, nowhere nearby overlooking it except the bastion above, but that bulged outwards a little as it rose and thus someone looking down from way up top would struggle to see or shoot at them.

On one side, the vast expanse of the endless jungle stretched into the distance. On the other, the rambling bulk of the castle continued and towers sprouted from it here and there, blocking their view of what was beyond it, though Nicolai knew it was just more jungle.

Below, more of the bastion they were on spread out. Towertops, open areas, rooftops, bridges. Looking down Nicolai could faintly made out undead in places, lurking and guarding, and in some areas he even saw the movements of people.

Nicolai checked on his poncho, which was spread out on the ground to one side where he’d left it, and found it at a little under fifty-percent charge. A short distance from it was a solar-charger, the one placed by Azure and Perro to power the cameras.

He settled into a sitting position, cross-legged, while the others emerged from the stairwell exit in the wall. While waiting for all to join him he placed Kleos to one side, positioned to have eyes on them all, and then placed his MP5 and some of the other bulkier items on him beside the head, unloading his body.

Finally he checked on his Node, found it approaching half-empty and refilled it with an Oma crystal. He took some time to move his awareness over the two still-finalising Node’s in his lungs, trying to gauge how far done they were.

Compared to when he’d just finished them they were noticeably changed, brighter with energy, seeming firmer and more real within him, their shells in the process of fusing into something smooth and perfect. However, compared to his heart’s Node they still had a ways to go. When he moved his awareness inside of them he did not experience of the dizzying shift of scope as he did with his heart’s Node, where the inside seemed far larger than it should be. Instead he simply moved through the shell and was able to examine the small amount of space within them. There was also no sign of the dark twist that existed in the centre of his other Node.

By the time he’d finished checking, the others were sat around him. Perro and Jo and Katie sat cross-legged, perhaps in mimic of Nicolai. Jo took some time to sit, moving slowly and carefully, wincing here and there. Beth and Azure sat with legs splayed out, and finally Sara settled some distance to the side, leaning against the wall behind Katie.

He took a little time to remove a sustaining seed, spit on it and allow it to grow, then handed a chunk to Jo. ‘Eat,’ he told her.

‘What are we doing?’ muttered Kleos from beside him, appearing quite confused.

‘I am going to teach you all how to connect to your Seed and utilise its Soul Sense,’ he replied in explanation, partly for Kleos’ benefit, though he aimed his words at the small group. ‘Who has connected to their Seed on purpose before?’

There was a moment of puzzled faces and half-raised hands. It made Nicolai feel like a teacher facing a group of uncertain students, which was such an odd experience that he was briefly stunned. Then Jo spoke up.

‘I can connect to mine when I focus for a few minutes. I don’t do it often,’ she said. ‘I know about the Soul Sense but I never use it.’ She nodded to Beth, ‘Beth was the one who got decent at it.’

‘How’d you already know to do it?’ asked Azure, frowning a little.

‘The painting down there,’ said Beth. ‘It taught us how… before it started being shitty.’

From Azure’s face Nicolai knew she’d just become a little more interested in the painting. Best nip that in the bud.

‘It’s not helpful any longer,’ he said. ‘Keep away from it, it has nothing to say and will only try to trick you. If you have questions, ask Kleos. So, none of you have connected to your Seed on purpose?’ he asked again to Perro, Azure and Katie.

Perro and Azure just shrugged, but Katie was chewing her lip.

‘Katie?’ he asked.

‘I have,’ she said in a quiet, shy voice, avoiding the gazes that came her way.

‘Well done.’ He smiled encouragingly. ‘How long does it take you?’

‘Like… a minute or two?’

Not bad, especially for a child.

‘You three will focus on connecting to your Seed. That is step one. Ideally you want to be able to do it in less than ten seconds, and hold that connection despite distraction, to get much use from Soul Sense.’ Azure was frowning harder at that, her eyes on his hand; where the Pegasi ring glinted. ‘And the same applies if you want to use this,’ he held his hand up, displaying the ring, and raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

He continued to speak about how to connect to one’s Seed, pleased to find the three of them attentive students. He told them about searching for a certain mental state while thinking of the Seed, while it was touching them, and while desiring to connect to it. His state had been to simply calm and quiet his mind, float for a time without letting any thought catch and stay in his mind, a simple meditational state he did his best to teach them how to find.

That done he instructed them to tell him when they’d done it and left the three of them to it, sitting there quietly with their Seeds in their hands, either staring down at the Seeds or with their eyes closed.

Next he turned to Jo.

‘Connect to your Seed,’ he told her, and waited patiently as she did the same as the others. To his surprise, Katie spoke up first.

‘I’m connected,’ breathed the little girl. A moment later Jo said the same.

‘Then, you two, now try to push your awareness out of your Seeds.’

Nicolai saw Jo’s Soul Sense tendrils emerge rapidly from the Seed in her hands, first one tiny strand then more which moved aimlessly around the tower-top, pressing and prodding at things. She’d done this before.

Katie’s came slower, and in fewer numbers, though more strands appeared every few seconds.

Nicolai shrugged. ‘Get used to moving them around, exploring with them. Once you feel you are doing well, see if you can stand up and start moving around while continuing to operate them.’

Finally he turned to Beth, and a little eagerness twined through him. She was sitting there with a bored lean to her face, observing the others, her advanced Soul Sense’s larger tendril moving around. As he watched her tendril prodded at Jo’s smaller ones, which flinched away, then the whole mess of them collapsed back into Jo’s Seed and her eyes opened.

‘Hey! Was that you?’ She immediately looked to Beth who smirked back at her.

‘You have to hold onto them tighter than that,’ said Beth with, Nicolai noted, quite a degree of smugness.

‘Leave her be,’ said Nicolai quickly to Beth, recognising the brewing of an argument in Jo’s scowl. ‘Beth, you and I will spar.’

‘Spar?’

‘I’ll attack your Soul Sense and try to break it so it falls back into you. Like the bird did, remember?’ From how her features darkened, he saw she very much did remember. ‘Then, you will do the same to me.’ This was the part that Nicolai was actually looking forward to. He was hungry to experience more Soul Sense combat, to see how it worked, to see how they stacked up.

‘What’s this about a bird?’ asked Kleos.

Nicolai opened his mouth to reply but Beth didn’t give him the time. His only warning was the tightening of her expression with focus, then her Soul Sense tendril lunged at him.