Drow's Dilemma Ep. 127: Born

Caleldir emerged from his workstation in the Spider-Tank and observed the scene. "Seems everyone is having a good time here." He observed. "Phanuel is a much better leader than Faust, apparently." Despite them being the same person, of course.

-Beautiful- Riia thought to the rest of the party. -Do you think Phanuel will come with me to see this place later?-

"We'll find out when we contact him," Selene responded with an amused half-smirk.

"Cal!" Shouted a familiar voice from a person who was jogging out of the troupe's camp. "You are here, right?" Artur asked as he drew nearer, squinting his eyes. His sight was nowhere near the strength of the elves, who could easily distinguish both him and Dria (who was not far behind him) in the failing light.

Caleldir's head turned to answer the familiar voice. "Artur, sir," he said with a grin. "It is good to see you and Ms. Dria again. How are things these days? Successful, it seems, judging by this camp."

"Successful, yes! I would say that!" Artur said with an affectionate slap on Caleldir's shoulder. "It seems you have been rather... fruitful as well recently." He grinned at Selene and her infant slung to her chest, who stood passively to the side. Then his eyes passed over the two pale elves standing beside Selene.

"Fruitful. That is one way to put it." Caleldir sighed. Then he smiled and gave Selene a side-hug for a second.

"Good to meet you, sir." Dahlia in her light-elf form said with a playful curtsey. "I am Dahlia, and this is Selene's sister, Sidhriia. You'll be seeing a lot of this one from now on, I'd wager." She reached her arm around Riia's back to rub the shoulder opposite to her. "We have reason to believe that she and Phanuel will get along quite well."

"Ha! By her blush I wouldn't doubt it!" Dria responded.

"You may remember Dahlia from her work as a tavern maid back at your place, Dria," Caleldir noted.

"Tavern maid... ah, yes. Good to see you again, Dahlia!" Dria slipped her arm through Artur's, and a shiny ring flashed on her third finger. "Artur and I have been getting along even better recently," she told Caleldir, a happy smile on her face. "All of the people of my town have been folded into the troupe's numbers. We collectively got a taste for excitement those months ago; the elderly, children - all of us - decided to live on the road for a while."

Artur looked back at the glowing festivities. "Sort of, anyway. The bad weather is coming in soon, so Phanuel most graciously let us set up here for a while. Gave us some funds, too, as an apology for the damage Faust did to our property. That, combined with the money we make every night from the citizens, will put us well on the way to building a better caravan than ever! Come spring, we can go wherever we want! We mourn the people we lost, but our troupe has never shown so much promise. But how have you and your refugees been doing, Cal? I hope you've had the same fortune we have!"

"Well... we purified Deusterra and ended the curse on the Halls of Shifting Eternity. Ellistraean drow and the faithful of Aelsuna, Felesh, and Merethllyr are all flocking there en-masse, as those goddesses claim the territory as a sort of new holy land. I am pretty sure most of the caravan follows Merethllyr, do they not?" He nodded. "Anyway, there is soon to be a lot of new real estate opening up in Deusterra. A lot of houses are going to be for sale there once the infrastructure is cleared of haunted spirits and malfunctioning machines. Consider emigrating there when you wish to settle down."

His eyes turned towards the gates of Port Afron. "Hmm... I suppose we do not need to head into Port Afron immediately, but we should hurry all the same." With that, he caught up on saying hello to a number of his old acquaintances before taking his leave and heading into the city to seek an audience with Phanuel. He had a defense system to showcase.

Caleldir made his way to the castle quite quickly. Phanuel was busy, of course, but since Caleldir was currently acting as a representative of the current legal ruler of the city (the absent Queen Althaia), he did take precedence over nearly all other business. Which was nice.

The party was received in the meeting hall without much delay. The signal that Selene had sent gave the castle just enough time to set things up for guests. They had caught Phanuel a little bit before dinner - just enough time for Caleldir to give his presentation before it would be ready - so Phanuel invited them to dine with him. It was, after all, the kitchen that the goblin, Fucking, learned his trade; the food was likely the best one could get for hundreds of miles.

There was a brief blushing acknowledgment between Sidhriia and Phanuel. The pale drow was very visibly flustered, and even the unemotive Aasimar looked distracted. He was able to rally, though, and get to business (which he insisted on getting out of the way before any other catching up could be done). Riia continued to blush and be unable to decide what to do with herself. Thankfully, her input wasn't necessary here.

And so - after the initial greetings and civilities and cautioning Phanuel that the information that he was about to share was extremely secret and classified and all those that he did not want to be 'in the know' should be dismissed - Caleldir got down to business. Grinning broadly, he brought out a large, oblong object from his dimensional inventory. About the size and shape of an ostrich egg, it had a smooth silvery metallic texture with multi-colored streams of light flowing across the surface.

"This is Intelligent Defense Administrator Beta Three, given the personal name Aida, standing for Afron Intelligent Defense Administrator," Caleldir began. "Or, rather, her larval form. When I install her in the underground of the city this egg will grow to the size of an adult medium humanoid and hatch into the form of a woman who will be the biological central processing unit of the new defense grid. Aida will be born with the ability to monitor the entire underground, alert you to breaches in the perimeter, and be able to defend herself and the underground from low-threat attacks. She will grow in power as she ages, though, until she will become a semi-divine, mighty force, the very spirit of the city. She will grow in power by using her avatars - semi-solid magical projections of her mainframe - to reshape the underground with innumerable traps and defense systems."

Caleldir let out a long exhale. "Eventually, she will grow to be able to supplement above-ground defenses as well, but that is most likely a century or so away. She is born with the intelligence and knowledge of a skilled arcane engineer, and will only grow from there. She is powered by life energy radiating off of the city above, passively absorbing the ambient energy of the inhabitants of the city. She can also gain extra power from draining the entire life-force of enemies, or from executing felons, but as she is Lawful Neutral with a strong tendency towards Good, she will refuse to kill the law-abiding, honorable, or altruistic in this fashion. It is not necessary to supplement her energy this way, it will just give her the ability to build and repair the installed defense systems faster, and even repair and expand the underground itself, adding new rooms and passages depending on her needs. She is biologically immortal and nearly unkillable. She begins with eight back-up storage crystals that form the perimeter of her initial defense system, and as long as at least one of them remains unshattered, she can fully restore her bio-CPU from stored data. The crystals bury themselves deep in the bedrock, so will be nearly impossible to dislodge. She will continue to create and bury crystals as she gains the power to do so. For every crystal she has, she can manifest one semi-solid magically projected avatar, but the avatars can manifest anywhere within her territory. The avatars are not as powerful as the mainframe, but they will still be potent defense forces in their own right."

Caleldir continued. "Aida, along with the rest of the I.D.A. line, has a female biological mainframe that has the ability to reproduce more of herself. She can do this asexually, and her children, if she chooses to have them, will be of the I.D.A. Gamma generation, and once they reach adulthood will leave in search of another city, village, or ancestral home to become the defense system for. Each I.D.A. Unit will be primarily loyal to the de-facto and/or de-jure leadership of their communities, with certain safeguards programmed into their genetic personality profile to prevent abuse. As far as treating her is concerned: you can safely ignore her - as I.D.A. Units are not a race that requires social interaction for happiness - but she will respond very poorly to mistreatment. Good treatment will make her happy (with 'good treatment' being something that each unit will decide for herself what that means, though they are programmed to be modest in their desires). That said, her needs are few and she will be annoyed by constant interaction with others. It is largely best to leave her alone as long as you occasionally acknowledge her and respect her efforts."

A deep breath. "There is a color system of lighting that you should be aware of. All I.D.A. Units will use it to indicate their current condition. Blue is the most common and indicates All Systems Normal. White indicates that Maintenance or Inspections are currently ongoing. Yellow indicates she is on Alert and expects combat. Red indicates that she is in active combat. Orange indicates that she is not in combat but has taken damage, and some systems are critically compromised. Black indicates that fatal damage has been suffered and the entire system is offline except the mainframe itself. Green means that repairs or construction is currently ongoing. Finally, Purple means that there are abnormalities in the system that will not affect performance. She is programmed to test system responses to each of these states regularly, so, for instance, if you go down into the underground to discover that the lighting is red it could mean that she is testing her combat systems, not necessarily that there is an invasion she has not alerted you about."

He drew another breath and finished. "All I.D.A. Units, in addition to their arcane abilities, also draw divine spells from their Goddess: Intelligent Defense Administrator Alpha Zero, named Vinya, the first of her kind. Vinya is a unique entity - the 'Alpha' generation - the Beta Generation are those that are personally created as adults by the original makers, and Generations Gamma, Delta, and so forth of the race are those who are born. There is not expected to be any significant difference in power between generations Beta and lower. The I.D.A. Units do coordinate with each other, but their primary loyalty is the defense and welfare of the people living in their communities, so you do not need to worry about security being compromised by their spread. Even if Norahist and Vinya were to go to war with Afron, Aida would still defend Afron. Though presumably without her divine spells if she were in direct conflict with Vinya Herself."

Caleldir looked around. "Any questions?"

Phanuel had listened to the lengthy explanation with a neutral expression, his fingers steepled in front of his face. During the presentation, it was difficult to determine just what the leader of Port Afron was thinking. Finally, when Caleldir stopped for questions, the Aasimar spoke. "Most impressive," he said and, though his voice wasn't particularly emphatic, there was a quiet excitement in his body language that suggested he was more impressed than he let on. "I assume you have the explanation in writing? It is a lot to remember."

"Selene has the written information," Caleldir noted. "Along with everything else necessary."

A servant came to his ear to whisper something briefly. "Yes, send it in," was Phanuel's quick reply.

In the meantime, Selene pulled out the extremely ordered paperwork she had made sure to put together. "This outlines all you need to know and do - which isn't much. Aida will be able to take care of things on her own."

Then, the food came in on kingly platters. The presentation was excellent but, unlike a true royal feast, there was only enough for the people present to eat their fill with minimal leftovers. "I would like to witness her installation, if possible," Phanuel said as a servant carved the roast.

"To install Aida we will need to go to the center of the Underground then send eight people outwards to eight points on the perimeter of the city, designating her current limits. I was going to send Dahlia, Selene, and the six rusalka to do that while I waited in the center to activate her once the control crystals have confirmed the placement of the back-up crystals. I do not think that it will be useful for you to be there, but you can if you wish. I am not sure if Aida will want an audience for her activation, though. Maybe Sidhriia would appreciate some time with you while you wait? Either way, Aida will report to you once she is fully installed, whether you are down there or up here."

"I simply wanted to witness the installation out of curiosity; I do not have to be there if there is a chance for it to complicate things," Faust responded in his usual flat tone. "I... may be of more use entertaining those you have to leave behind." He glanced toward Riia so quickly that one might miss the action. The object of his glance didn't miss it, however. Her blush, which had calmed down with the distraction of the different topic, went to full bloom again.

Caleldir turned to Selene. "Are you comfortable leaving Iondae up here with Sidhriia while you help install Aida? I am not sure it is wise to bring her with you while you are trudging through the sewers, however clean they are."

"I certainly do not want to take Iondae with me to the sewers," Selene responded emphatically. "Nor do I want her to have much contact with all those rusalka. Do you mind if I leave her here with you, Riia? It may be some time before I can get back." She looked between her sister and the male that was making her so flustered. The infant would likely put a damper on things between them, but then again she could make them bond in other ways. Either way, Selene didn't feel like she had much of a choice.

Riia blinked rapidly for a moment, apparently shaking distracting thoughts from her head. -I will care for my niece- She responded once her brain properly registered what her sister said. -It is no problem- How hard could it be? She knew life magic.

Reading Phanuel's tone and trying to guess at his feelings was never a very easy proposition when it was not outright impossible. Good thing Caleldir could afford to take him at face value. "How long the installation will take will be largely dependent on whether or not the Rusalka are willing to help. I think that I will be able to persuade them, though, so hopefully, Aida will be able to send an avatar to report to you within the day and will invite you down to meet her mainframe in person within the week."

Glancing from Sidhriia to Phanuel and back, that was not as hard to read at all. "Iondae should be ready for a nap soon enough," he noted. "As long as she is not left completely unattended, I think she will be fine for an hour or two."

"It is all sorted, then," Phanuel concluded. "A brief update on how things are going here: I can assure you that my mind is clearer than it has ever been. It has been a great relief, I must say. Relations with the other Independent States are being reestablished; trade routes are returning to normal. I am immensely thankful that Faust's... affliction was of a paranoid sort, and not aggressive. Port Afron should make a full recovery by this time next year. How are things progressing with your fledgling country?"

Caleldir considered Phanuel's question. "Good to hear Port Afron is doing well. Norahist is doing quite well also. We have ended the main curse, and are working on cleaning out the rest of the country. It will be a few years before the place is fully cleared of monsters, but for now, the biggest problems are dealt with, and the Byzromine Aelsunite ex-pats and the Blackdawn Ellistraeans are forming a provisional government."

They fell into the details of city and country management. Phanuel had a lot of practical knowledge to share on that subject.

The dinner soon after came to a close and Phanuel stood. "I will take you to the sewer entrance closest to here... though I believe you might already know the way." There was the slightest bit of amusement in his expression. Or maybe it was a trick of the light. "Lady Sidhriia, Lady Iondae, and I will wait for your return in the castle. Take as long as you need."

Phanuel's almost grin drew a sigh from Caleldir. "I do know the way down," he said somewhat grouchily. Finishing his plate, he stood up. "I will head there now," he said with another smile. It was clear that he was very excited by the prospect of installing the A.I. "Aida will likely be the one to tell you that we are done. After that, we will return."

Caleldir bowed and made his way to the sewers rather quickly. "I am not sure how this introduction is going to go between you and these six, Dahlia."

The Rusalka seemed to realize that Caleldir and the party had arrived. As he and Dahlia got down into the underground, wicked giggles echoed and floated up the passageway that led to their lair. There was no sight of them, however, until they got deeper into the waterways. Then there were flashes of pale skin and wild hair along the side passages, along with more wickedly amused giggles. Finally, Caleldir and Dahlia turned a corner, and there stood the proud, tall Rostimira in all her dark-haired and naked pale-skinned glory.

"Caleldir," she greeted him with her richly accented voice. The toothy smile she gave him might have been meant to be friendly. Might have. "You have a new woman." Her face raised slightly in the air to catch the other woman's scent. "A tame succubus. Interesting."

Dahlia, who had been in her standard light-elf form, let her body shift into what came more naturally. She gave the leader of the Rusalka an answering 'friendly' grin and took possessive hold of Caleldir's arm. "Tame is not how I would phrase it, Rusalka," the familiar responded in a playful tone. "'Familiar' would be more accurate."

"Succubus familiar! Is this a thing Master Goelon has done?" Rostimira asked with slight surprise. "You have been busy, Caleldir. I hope your presence means you have been busy fulfilling our agreement as well?"

Meanwhile, three other Rusalka seemed to melt out of the stone and water: Nemanja, Katia, and Miloslava. They did not speak, but their eyes bored into their two guests with malicious curiosity.

"I see you are all well," Caleldir responded. "I hope that Mirjana and Danica are doing well also?"

"They are fine," Rostimira said with a dismissive wave. "Someone needed to guard while we spoke." There were murmurs of cruel amusement from the other three rusalka; it was a job deemed neither important nor all that necessary in the current circumstances. It almost seemed as if they were made to stay away because it amused the rest of the wicked fae. Dahlia scoffed and muttered to herself about rusalka and improper sisterly bonds.

Not that succubi were perfect at that sort of thing either...

So Danica and Mirjana were being bullied again. Predictable. Caleldir rolled his eyes. "Well, I need their help. We need nine people to do this the best way." Dahlia's reaction to the Rusalka was slightly amusing and got a slight smile out of Caleldir before he turned his attention to other matters.

"Anyway, gaining Dahlia as a Familiar was not either of our intentions, but I do not regret it. She has been invaluable, a great help, and a good friend. Even if she is rather perverse. And yes, I have finished a defense system that can replace you, if you wish it." He pulled out the strange, iridescently colored egg. "Now, when my Master and I were designing this, I thought to myself what could replace a rusalka, given your powers, intelligence, and beauty. In the end, we decided that we had to build another rusalka." He grinned broadly and gave them a rapid review of the highlights of what he had told Phanuel.