"What EUe make?" Vyx asked.
"EUe help Vyx," EUe said—and he was nearly finished.
EUe was proud of what he'd accomplished, and not just because it had taken him all day to get the circuitry done. If it worked, it would save the whole damn world. And if it didn't, it would certainly do… something, and that would be a teachable moment, which was better than nothing.
It was the strangest runetics project he'd ever done.
"How EUe help?" Vyx asked, and not for the first time. The alien was endlessly curious about everything, especially when it involved EUe.
"Complicated," EUe answered.
"Vyx does not like complicated."
"You can say that again," EUe muttered.
"Vyx does not like complicated."
EUe chirruped in amusement. If the world hadn't been ending, he was pretty sure he'd be having the time of his life.
"Erase the web here, please," he said, placing his hand on a spot on the wall, off to the side.
Through his second eyelids, EUe watched the webs of not-light communing in Vyx's big wall retract away from his hand. The wall's silvery material dulled slightly as the energies retreated.
EUe's plan was as simple as it was audacious: he'd set himself to build Vyx an eye. It would be the first construction of its kind. Though there were some half-related precedents EUe knew of to draw from for this task, they still paled in comparison to what he was about to attempt.
He'd started by asking himself the most basic question: what was an eye? gEl, the clam biologist, would have probably said something like, "An eye is an organ that detects the presence of true-light," which, though perfectly accurate, failed to properly emphasize what eyes weren't. Contrary to popular belief, eyes were not responsible for the experience of sight; that job fell to the brain. The eye, as gEl might have said, was to act as a light detector, and to send signals to the brain that it could make sense of as sight.
The anatomists of the Ecumene's early years had made that discovery, and much more. Rubies used twEfE of other colors as test subjects, taking criminals and dissidents alike, cutting them open, sewing them back up again, sometimes adding a couple mutations here and there, and/or fiddling around with their mental architecture. Even now, just thinking about it made EUe nauseous. Still, there was no denying that most modern medical knowledge was rooted in those ancient anatomists' gruesome work.
"At least I'm putting it to good use," he mumbled.
What did all of this mean for Vyx's eye? Easy: what mattered was the runetic infrastructure Vyx would need in order to see the world the way twEfE did.
Deriving such infrastructure from scratch would have been nightmarishly complicated. However, EUe wasn't doing it from scratch. As not-life, Vyx was already chock-full of indescribably complicated communions that Vyx's makers had put in place to do the things tissues and organs did in organic life-forms. Because of that, he could skip the whole "it's impossible" problem of creating a not-life eye out of nothing and get away with simply making a communion that could detect true-light and output representative data, and then trusting Vyx to take care of the not-so-minor business of integrating his creation into its inorganic biology.
To keep the artificial eye both strong and stable, EUe used his dreamshard to bolster the webs his mind was weaving on the wall. After setting up the base prayers, he stacked a web fitted with an interwoven pair of hymns on top of it, one to the Goddess of Day, and the other to twezU-Efe, the high God of Language. Yes, he no longer knew if either Uahea or twezU-Efe even existed, and had strong fears that they did not, but that didn't change the fact that the techniques he knew did, in fact, work, for the same reason that you didn't need to appeal to Gods or lEs to justify that two and two was four. As Vyx would say: it just was.
Presently, EUe was going over his work, making sure everything was in the proper place. He chirped with pride as he viewed his creation through his second lids.
Once the web was activated, its communion should provide Vyx the same service that twEfE's retina did for them: create an outgoing current in response to the presence of true-light. The main difference was that this current would be linguistic, rather than an electric, so as to give Vyx the best and broadest possible chance of figuring out what to do with the information. (At least, that's what lE Theory claimed was happening.)
"EUe help finished?" Vyx asked.
EUe was about to answer "Yes" when he had an epiphany at the last-minute.
Vyx would probably have an easier time integrating the synthetic not-light organ into its body if the clauses of the web's base prayer were open-ended, instead of closed.
EUe spent a couple more minutes implementing the necessary changes, his wings and tail feathers twitching with impatience.
Then, finally, it was done.
"There, done!" EUe dropped to his knees and sighed with relief.
"What EUe make?" Vyx asked.
"EUe make web," he explained. "Vyx use web."
With a thought, he pushed the sheets and tendrils of not-light deeper into the wall. After a moment's hesitation, Vyx's not-light approached the eye-web from all sides and began stitching it into its network.
EUe watched in awe as Vyx poured not-light into its brand new energy-based organ. The eye-web erupted with power, glowing in both not-light and true light. Several seconds later, as the true-light faded, a hexagonal prism jutted out from the silver wall. It stuck out far enough that EUe had to lean back in order to avoid getting hit by it.
Vyx shouted in astonishment. "EUe! What is this? What is this? What what what?"
For a split second, EUe was worried Vyx was angry with him, and that anxiety made his feathers stand up on end and puffed up his gorget. But then EUe saw the hexagonal prism move—up, down, left, right—swiveling around like a gU-lUte's omnidirectional eyes, and he realized what he had accomplished.
He slowly rose to his feet, whistling in wonder.
"It works. It works!"
— — —
EUe was well aware that senses were complicated things that took years to master, and was just as well aware that the speed—a matter of minutes—with which Vyx was able to accept, understand, and master the entirely new physical sense he'd given him was fucking terrifying. His paranoia wanted to work him up into a frenzy over the implications all this had for just how intelligent Vyx was, but EUe was just too excited to care. It was hard for him not to hover midair as he demonstrated the meanings of so many different words: here, there, stop, go, left, right, turn, walk, run, hover, fly, and so many others, not to mention his species' name, the parts of his body, and even the clothes over his feathers. Eventually, he simply let himself fly around, buzzing with glee as he pantomimed skits for Vyx's benefit to explain even more concepts, like punching and clawing at Vyx's walls to convey the meaning of "Attack", or zipping around to block his own strikes to illustrate what it meant to "Defend".
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
EUe's heartbeat was little more than a twitching buzz at the side of his head. He felt like fire and lightning, like he'd just had his first mating flight all over again.
Vyx could see him. And talk to him! And it was all because of his own efforts.
For the first time in a long time, EUe felt like his life had value—that he'd done something worth celebrating.
He grabbed one of the last remaining phials of nectar from his nectariat and downed it in one big lick-gulp, though not before explaining to Vyx what it was, and what he was doing with it.
After what he'd seen at tUel-tEa, EUe didn't want to take any chances. Yes, he could have shared his supply with the others, but he hoped the others would still be alive to forgive him once he and Vyx came to their rescue.
Steadying himself—clenching his fists—EUe turned to face the vessel's hexagonal eye. "Can you move? Or go outside?"
"What is outside?" Vyx asked.
EUe walked over and pointed down at the entry hole. "Outside is through here." He turned back to face Vyx's eye. "Can you go outside?"
For a moment, there was silence, followed by a soft scraping sound as Vyx's eye slid out of the wall. In seconds, the eye had taken flight, a piece of hovering machinery about as long as EUe's beak.
The hexagonal prism floated up beside him.
EUe slid his second lids into place and was greeted by a vivid, lace-like web affixed to Vyx's flying eye. The not-light glistened brightly with communions of language, synchrony, movement, flight, sound, and many other concepts both wondrous and alien.
"Vyx go outside," Vyx said. "Vyx learn words with EUe, then EUe help Vyx." It fell into one of its word-repeating cycles: "EUe help Vyx. EUe help Vyx. EUe help Vyx."
"Help with what?" EUe asked.
"Help defend. Help defend. Help defend. Help defend—"
—By the Gods, EUe thought. This is it.
The help EUe and his people so desperately needed was being offered to him like an open flower.
"Yes," he said. "We can do it together."
"EUe go," Vyx said. "Vyx follow."
Nodding and revving his wings, EUe pushed off the vessel's floor with legs and flew down and out through the entry hole, with Vyx following close behind. All the pieces of the world spread out before EUe, and he pointed them out to Vyx, naming them, one after the other.
Land. Sky. Sun. Mountains. Trees. Plains. Coastline. Beach. Ocean. Waves.
"What is land and sky and ocean and all, but not sky outside sky?" Vyx asked.
"World," EUe said. "And sky outside sky is space—outer space."
"Vyx come to twEfE world for help."
EUe's wings beat even faster. "Yes, yes, we need help!"
Vyx bobbed up and down in an alien nod. "Yes yes yes."
The sun was starting to sink below the horizon, setting the waves agleam with light. For a moment, Vyx stared at the horizon, where the melting pot of colors converged at their sinking heart.
"What is… that?" it asked, awed.
"Sunset," EUe said.
"It is…" The hexagonal prism yawed from side to side, before turning to face EUe. "Vyx not know word."
"Beautiful," EUe said. "Sublime." He wanted to say them softly, but he had to be loud enough to make sure that Vyx could hear him over the buffeting winds and the hum of his wings. "This is my world," he explained. "My people need your help to save it."
Vyx bobbed up and down again. "Vyx help EUe like EUe help Vyx."
EUe nodded. "Let's go, let's go. Follow me!"
With Vyx at his side, EUe landed in the center of camp, his heart still blurring in his chest. He turned around, looking for any sign of tlE-la or the others, but the camp seemed empty.
Vyx looked around in wonder. "So many things…"
EUe chittered nervously. "But where is everybody…?" Yes, it was getting late and everyone but him was sick, but there should have still been a few people out and about, right?
But there wasn't.
EUe hurried down the central path toward tlE-la's nest, with Vyx following behind. The door was open; not widely ajar, but not closed, either.
"tlE-la! I did it! I've brought Vyx to help!" EUe yelled, not bothering to slow down as he flung the door open and ran inside. "I made—"
—But then he stopped in his tracks. His sense of exultation did, too. It got stuck in his throat, and plopped down into his gizzard, where it sat, rotting in the dark.
tlE-la's nest was a total disaster, and that was with the lights turned down. He didn't want to imagine how much worse it would have been if the room's light hadn't been ochre and dim.
Dozens of bright blue crystal slabboards were scattered on the reed-mat floor, and on chairs and tabletops. The disarray was positively claustrophobic. Except for the bedroom platform up the ladder in the wall, all of the nest's amenities—the kitchenette, the washroom—were tucked away in alcoves along the walls, laden with cabinets and shelves.
Every single one of them was open and empty, their contents scattered on the floor. Splotches of black ooze and green dust stained the walls and the floor.
The protective cover for the cloud-dial in the middle of the depression in the center of the room had been cast aside, leaving the cloud-dial exposed. The Philharmonium was on. A video was playing on the luminous projection.
tlE-la sat on a bench in one of the alcoves, curled up like a chick in their egg, watching the video, the images reflecting in her eyes.
Whoever had made the video had clearly been a talented Artisan. It took quite a bit of work to present images in three-dimensions, as opposed to the simpler, far more common two-dimensional projections.
Outside, Vyx yelled EUe's name again and again and again. But despite all the noise, the alien machine refused to come inside, not that EUe noticed it. He was too busy watching the video.
A ragged voice spoke. "Stay away from the cities. Stay away from everyone. No place is safe."
EUe couldn't believe his eyes.
The video was a quilt of nightmares, showing horrific, otherworldly imagery that left EUe feeling like his feathers' quills were crawling through his skin. Short segments of other videos crashed into one another. The sampled footage started and ended with shocking abruptness.
EUe saw farmland out in the countryside. Bloated UgUO-a corpses moldered in the rotting fields, still wearing their harnesses. Fungal bulbs crowned from the bodies, giving off a shining light.
The image changed.
Waters lapped at the wharves of kUe-kE's port. twEfE corpses bobbed with the ebb and flow. Freakish beasts crawled onto the shore with bodies stitched together from a potpourri of sea life. The corpses in the water stuck to the monsters' bodies like glue, quickly melting into their flesh.
The image changed.
A skyline of skyholders shadowed the horizon. It took EUe a moment to recognize he was looking at the Capital City. If someone had told him the skyholders had aged a thousand years, he would have believed it. Gigantic fungal trunks and roots grew along and through the skyholders' walls, rivening the stone. The nests on the buildings' exteriors had been cracked open by bioluminescent clusters of fruiting bodies.
"No…" EUe muttered. "No…"
The streets were littered with the dead. Shambling forms stalked the parks.
The fungus was spreading across the earth, reshaping the UlU into an otherworldly horror. EUe saw fires everywhere he looked. Smokestack-shaped prominences bulged from infested buildings, pumping green plumes in a colorful doubling of the many columns of ash and smoke.
"Gods…"
Serpentine entities filled the sky. Many were coiled around the tops of skyholders or nests' rooftops, staring blankly with their glistening, silver eyes. Others sang as a chorus of one, with their mouthless snouts raised skyward. At first, EUe thought they were demons, and what else could they be?
How could something like this even be real?
But then, to his horror, he saw that nearly all of the serpents were covered in patches of twEfE feathers.
Did that mean… could they be…?
The image changed.
Land and sky disappeared, replaced by a view of starry space.
It had to be footage from an atmospheric island.
UlU gleamed in the background, a world-pearl of land, sea, and sky. Higher still, the atmospheric islands loomed, hells instead of heavens, overrun by the fungus and its blasphemies. Their silhouettes were jungles of rots and decay, festooned with palms and vines of flesh and death. And the serpents…
"Gods, the serpents…"
Like squirming maggots, they swam, through the islands' dreamshard-bound atmospheres and the air canals in between. Not even the raw vacuum of space could stop the serpents. They flew in and out of the islands' atmospheres with ease, slithering through the void like it was nothing.
EUe didn't even want to look at the moon.
Unexpectedly, instead of changing, this time, the video panned over to the side.
EUe heard a scream.
For a split second, he saw a disfigured twEfE crawl across the ground, dragging blackened, shriveled legs in their wake. Their hands had swelled into monstrous, three fingered claws. A silver orb pulsed in one of their eye-sockets, while a serpent tail thrashed behind them.
The image changed right as the mutant leapt off the ground.
EUe turned away. He couldn't take any more of it. He stepped around the circular depression, away from the projection, and toward tlE-la.
He looked her in the eyes, and whispered. "Is this real…?" But then he stopped, and gasped.
EUe hadn't realized just how grave her condition was.
tlE-la was haggard and beaten. Her spectacles sat askance on her beak. Burns marred her clothes where the black ooze had eaten through the fabric. Whole swaths of feathers had fallen away from her neck, revealing dark filaments suffusing through the underlying skin; a grasp of black lightning.
EUe stared at tlE-la in shock, and she stared right back. There was a faraway look in her eyes, as alien to EUe as he seemed to be to her.
She reached for him with a twitching arm.
"Who are you?" she asked. She coughed and wrenched. "Gods, it hurts so much…" Ooze burbled out of her nares.
Every breath was a struggle.
EUe fought back a song of grief.
She shook, shedding feathers from her wings. "Why does it hurt?" she begged. "Why? Wh—"
"—EUe! Help! Help!" Vyx shrieked. The sound pierced through EUe's shock. "Help help help h—"
Clenching his fist, EUe leapt out of the nest's doorway and took to the sky. A moment later, he shuddered, stopping to hover, blinking in horrified disbelief.
"By the Gods…"
Below Vyx turned to face EUe. "EUe! Help! Help!"
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.