The Priestess' Punishment Pt. 01

Preparing soulpod neural network for Deepscan and re-training operation. Imperative: reset weighting on all paths to neurons tagged ConservationChecksum.

Yes, this was without doubt the key to everything; her blessing and her terrible curse. Her first hint should have been the sudden appetite and urgent requirement for water. Then, there had been her uncharacteristic sense of modesty for her private areas. But, most obvious than those, were the sudden influx of emotions, and the tears. The cause for all of these things were one and the same, and it was also the reason she was now exposed to the unbearable weight of her many sins.

Linarei had regained her humanity.

"It wasn't me." For nearly 300 years, her sole purpose and singular desire had been to maintain all aspects of human civilization exactly as it was - neither advancing nor declining. But as she even briefly reflected on it now, such a thing hardly seemed important at all. It had been the Conservation Checksum.

After discovering the full API documentation, cheating death and restoring her youthful beauty had not been enough for her. She had sought to steal the debugging privileges of the 'Conservation Checksum' - a piece of software with one primary directive - to conserve order in the world. It was a background process installed on the mainframe itself, constantly scanning the world in search of anomalies, and forcibly overwriting any entity or process that was deemed to be operating outside of normal parameters.

Linarei had been successful in this endeavour, but she had got more than she bargained for. She acquired not only the awesome power of the Conservation Checksum, but its singular function became her own. It was an absolute purpose that immediately overrode her own dreams and ambitions, forever changing how she would govern the Unified Empire.

Unfortunately, the directive 'Conserve the world', as interpreted by a person living within it, had borne very different results compared to what the original Conservation Checksum was capable of. She had influenced society and law to discourage changes to population, and spawned 'natural' barriers that prevented her people from venturing out and developing new settlements. She had developed the Gospel Interdictum, and created the terrible Inquisition to force it upon every citizen from the cradle to the grave.

Linarei had intended to put a halt to the advancement of their culture, technology and philosophy, and in that she had been successful. Her ideal may not have been her own, but it had become the core from which the ultimate system of oppression had taken form. And for centuries, she had pursued this ideal ruthlessly.

But at last, the original order of things was being gradually restored, and this had begun with the slow, ground-up eradication of the Conservation Checksum from the immense artificial neural network that was essentially Linarei. It had taken several weeks of constant processing on a distributed supercomputer, during which time the woman had slept without any awareness that her brain was being forcibly re-wired. And now, she understood.

Now, she recalled the atrocities of her past life as if awaking from a nightmare. An eternity witnessing her representation act autonomously and outside of her control. To take responsibility for it all was too much for a human consciousness - even an artificial one residing within a soulpod - to bear. Even as Linarei wept miserably into a cushion that she clenched between her knees, her mind was reeling to find a way to protect itself from so many terrible allegations.

It wasn't me! It wasn't me! It wasn't me! IT WASN'T ME!

"Your eminence? I'm afraid I must continue."

Finally, Linarei lifted her face towards the sound, and blinked away the gathered moisture. "P-please, no more. I remember everything."

"I'm glad, I... I'm having trouble reading any more of this myself. It just doesn't feel possible - I mean, not all of it, surely. Your eminence, you kept saying something there. Are you denying responsibility for these things?"

"That's..." But Linarei's voice trailed off. Despite the torrent of miserable recollections threatening to rip her mind asunder, she did not feel responsible. Linarei was still Linarei - so very entitled, so unable to do any wrong. And now, on the day of her reckoning, she was not responsible. If anything, she was just another victim of the flawed, experimental technology that governed their existence.

But what could she say? Who else had knowledge of the true nature of their world? Would she have them all believe that for centuries of rule, she had been influenced by a higher power; perhaps possession by the dark god Invictagur himself? There must have been many who were baying for her blood. Could she honestly expect the world to accept such a convenient excuse and forgive her?

Linarei was many things, but she was not stupid. As it was, she couldn't think of anything useful to say to Filipia in her defence.

"I'm different now, Filipia. I know I only just awoke this way, but I already know things could never be the same again. Even if my authority, and my Access Level were to be restored."

"Oh," Filipia looked at her with interest. With hope, even. "That's good, but still, I don't think-"

"Yes I know! The charges are too many and too terrible. Do not make me listen to any more of these 'testimonies', Filipia Designation Zwei. I admit it's all true, so just skip it all!"

"Very well. Then I will proceed to the sentencing." Filipia turned over several pages of the document, and Linarei paled. So there would be no trial then; no chance for her to charm her accusers and temper the anger against her. This was her karma, for, similarly, she had not once granted a fair trial to any person who had ever broken her Gospel Interdictum.

"Lady Linarei, By your own laws these crimes have earned you death many times over. However, the Primordial church has been dismantled, and new, fairer laws and freedoms now govern the Unified Empire. As such, it has been decided that the peace of death is incompatible with the magnitude of your crimes, and that you must continue to live and compensate those who suffered under your tyranny. How you might even begin to atone for your sins has been given much consideration, and the solution is now decided.

"As you mis-used your power and resources for your own vanity, so now will the fruits of your extravagances - your apparent eternal youth and beauty, indeed your very sexuality - be returned back to the people. Every person in the Unified Empire - even down to the most under-privileged citizen - will be granted sexual rights to your body, and you will suffer through every violation without any right of refusal. This-"

She was cut short when Linarei suddenly burst out laughing. When you've lived as long as the former ruler, it's not often you hear something completely original and absurd. And indeed what utter absurdity this was! The Unified Empire was a civilisation of dignity, and what Filipia just read out made no sense. Someone was having quite the joke with her! The knight, however, looked troubled, and finished her reading in a rush.

"This will take place on a once-per-day basis, with the person to administer your punishment selected by way of lottery from a pool of willing participants. Let your one solace be that you will be well kept, your physical safety guaranteed, even though you may be demeaned to the point of wishing for death. Accept this fair judgement, lady Linarei, who calls herself Debugger, and suffer your humiliation each day for the rest of your life, no matter how unnaturally long that may be."

"Eh- what?" Linarei regarded Filipia with suspicion. She had finished reading, and there was nothing else there - not imprisonment, making public statements of apology, no conventional corporal punishments... just this nonsense about getting fucked by random members of the populace. So they were for real - but how? This new council had come up with this?

Linarei thought about what - or whom - that actually meant. Some high ranking nobles, priests of the church, and members of the Inquisition. With the exception of her priests, the others may just be capable of something like this. The inquisitors must loathe her for what she had reduced them to. But the nobles should have loved her - they had always been the real winners in her society, and appreciated a great many privileges...

"Oh," that was it, though. The provincial nobles were known for pursuing their own fancies, and in some cases that meant satisfying sexual tastes that would be generally considered quite deviant. In short - many of them were perverts. And the higher the class of nobility, the more adventurous their taste, and the bolder their actions.

And this 'council' included the highest ranking nobles from across the Unified Empire. Ridiculous! How could such people be fit for rule? Linarei grinded her teeth together in frustration. She too was technically a noble, but back in her young years, that didn't quite entail the same thing. Without the Gospel Interdictum that granted noblemen authority over those beneath them, the kind of perversions that were present today just didn't exist. As Debugger, she had turned a blind eye to the corruption in the nobility, mostly because they managed to fit their activities around the Gospel Interdictum, without technically violating it.

"Filipia, you know this is laughable, don't you? Some noble fools on that council drank too much wine and came up with this nonsense to suit their own degeneracy. The priests of the Primordial church are on the council too, did you not say? They would never let this travesty pass!"

"It is my understanding, your eminence, that your former priests did indeed oppose many... ideas that the other members came up with. But the council works by a system of 75% majority agreement, and the priests were too few to secure you the minimum penalty that was being considered."

"Hawh, and what was that, just out of curiosity?"

"They wanted your knowledge and experience to serve as advisory to the council. To grant you ownership of the upper floors of this cathedral, and the freedom to travel to other places with proper approval and escort. I'm sorry to say, your eminence, that this proposition was too unpopular with the other members to have succeeded. The former inquisitors had a few different propositions, but they were all variations of the same thing. To see you physically tortured until your health points reach zero."

No surprises there!

"Then the noble's suggestion," Linarei ventured.

"Yes. They did not even show the same kind of passion on the matter as the others, and, as you say, their notion of 'return her body to the people' was submitted as something of a joke. But when it came to deliberations, it actually became the middle ground between the other extreme views. Ultimately, it was the only proposition that was able to achieve majority agreement."

Linarei stared at her in disbelief. So, it was really true, then. They were going to send men here to defile her body - to rape her! She immediately vowed to never submit to this mockery of justice. It simply must not be.

"And how long before this comes to pass? I will think of something, and to assist me you could-"

"-I don't think you understand, your eminence. My role here is to ensure that things proceed in an acceptable fashion, without undue violence. There's nothing I can do to rescue you from this fate. And I'm... well..." Filipia struggled to get the words out. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened them, the rest came out in a determined rush."The first visit was to begin promptly upon you regaining consciousness!"

"Wha?-" As if on queue, the seamless elevation platform towards the edge of the huge bedroom whirred into life, and descended to the 99th floor. It served only to provide access between the top two floors - the only access. For it to be moving, that could only mean that somebody had summoned it from below.

Filipia said, "I was required to send a notification as soon as you awoke." Then, much quieter, in a voice strained with pity, "I'm so... forgive me."

There was silence except for the low whir of the elevator, until it stopped briefly. Then, the whirring again, as the machine began its return journey up. Some other person - a man, it would seem - was about to emerge into the room. In a panic, Linarei all but leapt out of the bed in the direction of Filipia. She hoped to hide behind the paladin and her legendary Star Prism Blade, but she had yet to exercise her legs, and like a new-born foal she stumbled and fell to the carpet.

Her terror surrounding the imminent 'visitor' trumped her pride, and she crawled behind Filipia as a frightened child seeks refuge behind a parent. It was an extremely awkward moment for both women, but this informative interlude; their brief period of normalcy together - it was over.

Together they stared at the circular opening in the floor, the disgraced priestess and her retainer of dubious loyalty. The platform would return in a matter of moments. The priestess stared; her trepidation kept her rooted in place upon her knees. The platform was rising, reaching for her, with wicked intentions to violate her. And all she could do was stare with wide eyes - perhaps she did not even breathe for a time - but she stared as her personal calamity bore down upon her.