Karl Schroeder - Ashes of Candesce - Book Five of Virga

"Yeessss ... It's rather annoying, actually."

"The morphonts--your emissary's people--allow themselves to be changed by their bodies. They don't pretend to be disembodied, pure software agents, like the things that upgraded your friend. Those--well, they're a nightmare."

"But why?"

"The virtual use physical bodies like puppets, but the problem is, either they were once physical beings like your friend John, or they never were. If they were, their whole consciousness is designed to fit a certain kind of physical being. Without that to anchor them, they go mad. I'm sorry to say this, but your friend either already has, or soon will. The only way to prevent it is to give him a virtual body or download him into a new physical one.

"The ones that never did have bodies never had any anchor to the physical world. They hate and despise it as a realm of dumb matter that shouldn't exist. Freedom for them means the ability to change not just their bodies, but their emotions, their minds, their memories ... they have no stable identity. They're a kind of force, one that's steadily aligned itself against the embodied--the real --throughout history."

"And they hate Virga..."

"Because Virga," and here he turned to gesture at the vast wall of darkness behind them, "is the last refuge of the fully embodied. The very last place where reality is not just what you say it is."

Very gradually, without really realizing it, they had come to a halt in the middle of the glass passageway. Now Leal rubbed her chin musingly, and nodded at Keir. "That's why your people are here, isn't it? You're trying to figure out how Candesce defends Virga against A.N."

He looked startled, then nodded sheepishly. "We're doing something humans used to do thousands of years ago. It's called science . You've probably never heard of it."

She laughed. "Of course I've heard of it. What kind of science?"

"Um. Experimental physics?" He looked at her as if he was expecting some outburst from her: laughter? Awe?

"Of course," she said.

Thoroughly deflated, he merely nodded. "That's no surprise," she told him mildly. "It sounds like everyone outside of Virga wants to know how the sun of suns works. How it is that it's able to keep Artificial Nature at bay. We kind of figured you were doing something like that. The question is, who are you doing it for ?"

"For the embodied, because the virtuals are trying to absorb all of us. Most of the time they just move in and take over. Some of us, they makes their 'offer' to." He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but suddenly stopped dead.

At first Leal thought her words had stung him overmuch--though she fully intended them to sting. But Chen's head was tilted, his eyes focused on nothing as though listening intently to something.

"Don't panic," he said--not to her, she judged. "No, no, I mean I'm pretty sure I know what that was. Oh, stop it! I'll explain when we get there."

He began walking, then stopped again. "Yes, we ." He turned to Leal, his mouth twisted in annoyance. "It seems I've offended my brethren again. They beg me to stay, then get angry when I do."

Chen hurried ahead, his fireflies practicing formation flying over his head. "Um," she said as she followed. "What did you do?"

"The ornithopter I built--my flying machine--it's missing."

"Missing? But who could have--?"

Even as she spoke, Leal realized who it must be. They'd reached a T intersection; without another word to each other, Leal turned right while Chen went left.

When he was out of sight she began to bound along as quickly as the low gravity would let her. Rounding a final corner, she entered the chambers the Renaissance had given her party. For a moment, everything looked fine: Piero was playing cards with two of the airmen, while two more were trying on new shoes that the Edisonians had customized for their feet. They all looked up in surprise as she bounced to a halt in the doorway.

"Ma'am?" said Piero. Leal counted heads, and her suspicion was confirmed.

"Where," she shouted, "is Eustace Loll?"

5

MAYBE THIS INSTITUTIONALmint-green paint had once made the offices of the Abyss Ministry of the Interior inviting. Now, cracked and begrimed by the ages and lit only by flickering gaslight, it was merely depressing.

"It's an honor, truly an honor," the midlevel official behind the desk was saying. (Was he a subminister? An attache? After so many referrals and re-referrals, she couldn't recall.) "Always an honor to meet a member of the legendary Virga Home Guard, Ms.--?"

"Argyre. Antaea Argyre." She had promised Crase--not to mention herself--that she wouldn't use that name, or this uniform, again. It was a measure of Antaea's desperation that she was here today, smiling and shaking the hand the subminister (or attache) held out. She'd skulked here through alleys and understreet tunnels, and changed into the uniform in a downstairs washroom; still, Crase might yet discover that she was continuing to impersonate a member of the Home Guard. For that reason, and because this was her last lead, she would have to leave Sere after today.

The subminister gestured for her to sit, and for a moment there was silence punctuated by the clatter of typewriter keys in the outer office, and the rumble of a passing trolley in the street below. Then he held up the forms Antaea had filled out in the other room.

"Let me tell you, it's always a delight to meet a member of your race, Ms. Argyre." She did not return his smile this time.

"I'm just a little surprised," he went on.

"Oh?" She kept her expression neutral, and leaned forward indulgently.

"Well, I only mean," he said with a shrug, "that when your compatriots, ah, visited us a few months back, they demanded--I mean, requested--all our records pertaining to the incident you're referring to. The one in which the fugitive, this 'Leal Maspeth,' was centrally involved. You already know everything we know," he finished. Then he steepled his hands and smiled at her again.

"Maybe," she said to buy time. "But our copies have flown halfway around the world by now. It would take me months to lay my hands on them, and, well, I'm here, aren't I?"

He sighed. "I'd like to help, really I would. But it's not up to me. Your request is unusual enough, and, frankly, sensitive enough that it will have to be vetted at the highest levels. I can send it on--" He paused at a knock on the door. "Pardon me." He stood and went to open an inside door a crack. Gaslight shone off his bald spot as he bent to say, "What is it?"

Someone started to explain something through the narrow opening, but the subminister interrupted with a scoffing sound.

"What do you mean, Loll's back?"

There were more mumbled words; then, with sudden energy, the subminister turned and said, "I'm sorry, Officer Argyre, I'm going to have to cut this meeting short. Something's come up. If you will--?" He indicated the other door.

"Ah," she said. "Of course. Thank you for your time."

He ducked through the interior door and Antaea heard him talking to someone on the other side. She leaped out of her chair and put her ear to the door. Loll. That name had come up again and again in connection with Leal's case. He was an important man, by all accounts, and he'd disappeared at the same time as she had.

The thick imported wood of the door muffled the voices; she couldn't hear what was being said. They seemed to be moving away. There was no keyhole through which to peek; she couldn't just risk following them.

She eyed the window. It was narrow, there more for ventilation than the view, which meant it opened. She pushed it up and verified that there was a ledge outside. With only a glance back, she climbed out onto it and edged along to the next window.