An Unbound Soul

"What are you doing?" asked Krana from behind me, finally stirring.

"The portals Earth used to attack are still open. We need to close them, or otherwise ensure they can't be used to inflict further harm."

"Attack?" he asked, obviously confused. "Wasn't there... an... accident?"

His speech slowed as the Law flickered again. Apparently the Law had edited out the fact the damage had been deliberate.

"Accident, then. Whatever damaged the System, we need to prevent a repeat."

Alas, the menu didn't have a 'turn the portals off' option, and there was no sign of the System doing its soul magic trick. Not that I'd trust it, even if it did. It had been bad enough last time, but who knew what mistakes it could make trying to use soul affinity while in such a badly damaged state?

"System, if you're listening, can you close those portals?"

ding

I checked my messages, but there were none. The portals were still going strong, too. It didn't say it couldn't, though, which was nice. It probably wasn't worried about cutting Earth off since Earth was already cut off.

"It is asking me to vote," said Krana, while Serlv shook herself, looking somewhat dazed. "Explain. You believe this accident was due to the connection to Earth, and closing the portals will prevent a repeat?"

"Yes," I answered, unsure what exactly Krana 'remembered', and not wanting to say anything to contradict it.

"Very well."

ding

Again, no message to accompany the ding, but I caught a burst of spatial affinity below. The portals warped, but beyond that, there was no effect.

ding

Error: Portal stability beyond collapsible limits.

Damn. I struggled to close a portal that had been open for ten minutes. These had been open a lot longer than ten minutes. If they'd stabilised in the same way, it was quite likely they could never be closed again.

"Okay, for a start, stop producing dungeon cores on Earth. Or realm beta."

ding

"How will that help?" asked Krana.

"The System is somewhat limited, so producing a new dungeon core every few minutes can't be helping it," I answered.

"I hope you know what you're doing, but that does make sense. I concur."

Serlv nodded too, still remaining quiet.

ding

I kept my hand against the crystal, and noted that the list of connected shards now remained flatly at three. I really had administrative control over the System. Could I boost my levels? Give myself arbitrary counts of soul points? Grant myself new traits?

Grant others [Unbound Soul]?

It would be hard to explain to Krana how that would help the current situation, of course.

"Can the portals be sealed off? Encased in adamantite?"

ding

Information: Yes.

Nice that it answered, once Krana and Serlv had confirmed the request, but would it hurt to give just a little more detail?

"System, please encase the portal entrances on this side in adamantite."

ding

"An acceptable alternative to closing them," agreed Krana.

ding

Sure enough, a bubble of adamantite grew around each portal, blocking them from my [Mana Sight]. That would hopefully contain any further attacks, mundane or magical.

Hopefully that dealt with the possibility of further imminent bombs. But what next? If the System would respond to any voice orders...

"System, please explain how we can repair this damage."

ding

Awesome! Although I would hold off on celebration until it actually followed through.

"Yes, I concur," agreed Krana, with Serlv once again merely nodding.

ding

Information: Self diagnostics and repair functionality offline. Base templates missing due to memory core damage. Suggested action: replace memory core and restore data from backups.

"What does that mean?" asked Krana, apparently privy to the same message.

"I think it's saying that it doesn't know what it looked like before the damage, so it doesn't know what needs to be repaired, but that if we fixed that, it could repair itself."

It made sense that it hadn't been running for hundreds of years without needing some spare parts. So that reduced us from 'we need to rebuild the whole System' to 'we need to replace a memory core'. That didn't help much, though; I didn't know how to build a memory core any more than I knew how to rebuild the whole thing. Telling me to jump from Earth to Mars might theoretically be easier than telling me to jump from Earth to proxima centauri, but I sure as heck wasn't going to succeed at either task.

"System, locate replacement memory core," said Serlv, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

ding

Information: Administrative command requires quorum. Do you agree?

I directed a mental yes at the message prompt.

ding

Information: No information available.

"We have a rank five enchanter available," I pointed out, ignoring the contradictory message. "Maybe it's something his rank five skill taught him to build?"

"A long shot, but we shall try if no alternative presents itself," said Krana.

"System, locate data backups," said Serlv, and I nodded through the resulting quorum prompt.

ding

Information: No information available.

"Then even if we locate or manufacture a replacement memory core, full functionality cannot be restored," pointed out Krana.

"It might only lack information because of the damaged memory core. We should search this facility," I suggested.

"Agreed," said Krana, turning towards the exit.

Serlv didn't move.

"System, why are my memories and emotions stolen from me?" she asked.

Krana and I both turned to stare.

ding

Information: Administrative command requires quorum. Do you agree?

Did I? I had no clue! Obviously something was leaking through; [Soul Perception] showed she was still thoroughly infested with the Law, but the chains were chinked. So was her soul. But she was calm now, and nothing was breaking further. Would that change if I answered yes? Would it change if I answered no?

"What are you..." started Krana before Serlv silenced him with a glare. Then she turned to me.

"Well?" she asked. "You... are responsible, somehow. It felt like... for the first time... everything was clear, and then you... did something."

"I'm not responsible. I'll answer yes if you really want me to, but I don't know what the result will be. You might forget you asked, or it might make things worse."

Serlv's eyes narrowed, but she refrained from speaking. I took that as a yes.

ding

Information: A wide-spanning magical construct forbids access to specified knowledge and thought patterns. The construct was created by entity 'Erryn' on date . The construct is referred to by Erryn as the Law, although the nomenclature has not widely spread.

Krana immediately went blank.

"Erryn?" muttered Serlv, just as the chains pulsated. "No! I will not... I can not..."

She shook her head violently, once more becoming agitated as soul fought against Law.

"You'll hurt yourself if you fight it," I warned, not exactly telling her to stop, but feeling I should at least warn her. "This is damaging your soul!"

She turned to look at Krana, who was standing still and silent, still looking blank, then at me, eyes glistening damply with something I'd never seen on a dragon before. Fear.

"Please, help me," she said weakly, and then she stopped struggling.

I stood stunned as the pair of dragons reset and started walking up the corridor.

"Why do you delay?" asked Serlv when I didn't follow them. "Time is of the essence."

I didn't often swear, but I had to admit to using a bad word. Krana craned his neck, giving me a judging stare.

Fine, after that, there was no way I could claim to have a choice.

"System, grant the [Unbound Soul] trait to Serlvrenalliacta."

"What are you doing?" she demanded, obviously having no memory of the preceding couple of minutes. "We are here to conduct repairs. Do not take advantage of the access the System has granted us."

How was I supposed to respond to that? She'd asked me to free her, and I was prepared to risk doing so, but now she wasn't cooperating!

"Please, just trust me on this. It will... help."

"I will not permit you to use your System access in that manner, even if you think it is for the best."

"You literally just told me to... bah! Fine, but once we've solved this emergency, we're getting that sorted." Perhaps I'd rushed there, anyway; with the System in its damaged state, that sort of request could be dangerous. Once it was repaired, maybe I could ask it questions like 'would getting that trait stop her forgetting stuff', to prove to her she was forgetting things without triggering her to forget that she was forgetting.

I stalked up the staircase, somewhat cross about the fact I got worked up and then she shot me down herself. Yes, it was the Law's fault, not hers, but I was perfectly capable of getting angry without proper justification.

And if I did manage to free her later, where did it stop? Harry and friends were no-brainers, but who else? Serlv would probably demand Krana. I wanted to free Cluma, because I still had the niggling feeling at the back of my head that I was taking advantage of her brainwashed state, and should she ever recover her faculties, she'd immediately see that I didn't deserve her and leave me.

My family? Darren would be a danger, but my parents were probably okay. Or would they disown me, realising after all this time that I wasn't really their child?

What would Grover think, if I let him comprehend that a device he'd built had been responsible for the deaths of thousands? Or Cassian, if he understood that his bit of fun had resulted in the death of Erryn?

I stalked ahead of the dragons and back to the entrance hall, grabbing the booklet that was still sitting in its box under the really obvious sign. I didn't remember anything about a spare parts cupboard in it, but I hadn't inspected it in a huge amount of detail, and that hadn't been what I'd been looking for the last time I'd read it.

"What is that?" asked Krana.

"Maps of the ark, and a bit of a guidebook."

Not that he'd be able to read it. He'd watched Cluma pick it up, freeze up, drop it and forget it, but couldn't remember any of it.

"There's a room labelled maintenance bay, and another labelled fabrication. Nothing about backups, though."

"May I see?" asked Serlv, holding out a claw.

"Sure, but if you can't read it, blame yourself for declining that trait," I answered a little more snappily than intended.

She looked at me in confusion, then at the guidebook. "Why would I not be able to read it? The contents seem clear to me."

Interesting. What had it been that Cluma had seen that had triggered the Law, then? Whatever it was, Serlv obviously didn't hit it, keeping her snout in the booklet while hopping along on three legs as we moved down the corridor towards the maintenance bay.

It was a bust; the room contained extremely complex tooling and equipment, none of which I could guess the purposes of, but there were no spare parts for the System. There were no parts at all.

That just left the fabrication room, which looked very much like the maintenance bay, except with a different set of incomprehensible equipment. There were no instruction manuals I could see.

"System, can we use this equipment to construct a new memory core?" I asked, but got no response. Apparently it wasn't able to hear us. We needed a portal from here to the control chamber.

Actually, that was a good idea to file away, in case repairs failed. Here in the ark, I could bring up the skill shop. If it came down to it, could we leave the doors to this place open, and set up a bunch of portals from here to guild houses. We'd lose the convenience of being able to change class and buy skills anywhere, but it wasn't like they were common activities, so having to visit a guild hall or dedicated class-change room wouldn't be a huge cultural shift.

It did require the ability to gain levels while detached, though. I suppose things would still work out if level gains were stored up until the next visit to one of these new rooms.

"None of this equipment is familiar to me. You believe we can use it to build a new memory core?" asked Krana.

"Maybe? It's a long shot, but so is everything else. Given the room was labelled fabrication, it must be used for building things."

"How do you know the name of the room?" asked Serlv, who I noted was no longer holding the guidebook. "I do not see it marked anywhere."

Great; I was going to need to retrace our steps and find it again. Pity I'd missed what had triggered her.

Krana saved me from answering by pointing at one particularly large, cubic machine. "[Athena's Insight] claims that this is a universal fabricator," he said. "It does not specify how to use it."

Serlv circled it with interest. "I see no method of control."

"Maybe it's voice activated?" I suggested. "Please fabricate a new memory core."

A selection of coloured lights started blinking on one side of the box.

"Four hundred and twenty patterns match the description 'memory core'," came a mechanical, female voice. "Additional parameters required."

Oh joy. A new computer to bang my head against. Just what I needed.