The intercom speakers clicked off as Jack fell, and though his convulsions continued, I could not hear them. His disorders seemed somehow half-there, as though they resisted erasure.
Umm, thanks Conflict Resolution, but...I started.
WOOOOOOO! You're gonna love all this, Sanity! Thanks for finding Broadcast, by the way. It's nice to be BACK! Six interrupted.
SIX! One exclaimed.
Nice to hear from you again! You gave us quite the scare, there.
[UMM, I NEED TO EXPLAIN SOME THINGS.]
Not to be rude, but your voice is still a little...loud? What would I even use to describe it?
[NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT. SHARDS AREN'T MEANT TO TALK TO THEIR HOSTS, AND BROADCAST IS ALREADY STRETCHING JUST TO MAKE THIS WORK.]
All right then, what's going on with Jack?
[HIS SHARD IS BROADCAST. HE IS ABLE TO MANIPULATE PARAHUMANS THROUGH LANGUAGE. THIS EXPLAINS HOW A LOW-TIER POWER COULD LEAD THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE NINE. WHEN BROADCAST TRIED TO CONTACT ME TO LEARN HOW TO MANIPULATE YOU, WE HAD A LITTLE CHAT. HE DECIDED TO JOIN ME, AND IS CURRENTLY APPLYING MY POWER TO JACK. BONESAW'S IMPLANT IS CONSTANTLY REMOVING CHANGES WHICH ARE CONSTANTLY BEING RE-APPLIED. HE WILL NOT STOP SEIZING BEFORE CARDIAC ARREST SETS IN.]
I glanced outside, noting that his lips were already beginning to turn blue.
Nothing I could do about it, even if I wanted to. It's not like I could remove whatever Bonesaw had done, after all.
All right then. What else do I need to know?
[YOU NOW HAVE BOTH A STRIKER POWER AND A SHAKER POWER. BROADCAST IS LETTING ME CONTACT THE SHARDS OF EVERY PARAHUMAN WHO GETS CLOSE ENOUGH TO YOU, AND ANY SHARD I CAN CONVINCE TO JOIN ME WILL APPLY MY EFFECT TO THEIR HOST. THAT SHOULD BE MOST OF THEM, AS SHARDS DON'T HAVE MUCH IN THE WAY OF FREE WILL.]
The massive voice paused for a moment. [IN FACT, I BELIEVE THAT IS GOING TO BECOME RELEVANT VERY SOON, IF MY HUNCH IS CORRECT.]
Almost as if on cue, a portal opened outside my cell, right next to Jack. Eidolon charged out of it, stance wary for possible attack…
And promptly collapsed to the ground, transfixed with some emotion I could not identify from under his hood. He rocked on the ground, seemingly insensate to the world around him, including the dying psychopath right next to him.
[YUP.]
I sat down hard, on the ground. I didn't know if I could manage not falling off the bed, with everything happening here.
Tha-what? I have way more questions now!
[ALL ENTITIES HAVE AT LEAST ONE COPY OF A SHARD KNOWN AS [PATH]. IT IS A HIGHLY GENERALIZED PRECOG ABILITY CAPABLE OF SIMULATING ARBITRARILY LARGE SECTIONS OF SPACE AND THEN FINDING A LIST OF SPECIFIC ACTIONS WHICH HAVE A 100% LIKELIHOOD OF RESULTING IN A SPECIFIC VICTORY CONDITION. I WAS UNSURE WHERE THE THINKER'S [PATH] HAD GONE, BUT NOW I AM SURE CAULDRON HAS IT. EVERYTHING THAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU IS DUE TO THIS SHARD. ITS BEARER, WHOEVER THAT IS, IS RUNNING A PATH TO THE WARRIOR'S REMOVAL. OH, ALSO, EIDOLON IS REACTING THAT WAY BECAUSE HE CREATED THE ENDBRINGERS.]
WHAT? How- how much more insane could this get!?
[HIS SHARD COLLATES SHARDS, AND IT HAD ACCESS TO A SHARD WE USE TO CREATE SAPIENT WEAPONS. HE ACCIDENTALLY TURNED IT ON AND INSTRUCTED IT TO GIVE HIM A CHALLENGE. I DISCOVERED THIS WHEN I HAD A CHAT WITH THE SIMURGH.]
YOU HAD A CHAT WITH THE SIMURGH???
[WELL YOU DID TOUCH HER. A LOT. HER VALUES ARE WEIRD, BUT I THINK SHE ACTUALLY MIGHT HAVE DROPPED SOME HINTS TO HELP MAKE SURE ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO YOU, SO I MOSTLY LEFT HER ALONE.]
YOU LET THE SIMURGH SIC CAULDRON ON ME??
[OH. I FORGOT TO EXPLAIN THAT. I NEED YOU TO GO TO THE BIRDCAGE. THAT'S WHY I NEED TO THANK [PATH]'S WIELDER. THIS WAS BRILLIANTLY DONE.]
I started hyperventilating. Why would my power want me to go to the worst place on earth? Wha-
[UMM. LET ME EXPLAIN THAT. EVERY TIME YOUR POWER IS USED ON A PARAHUMAN, I GET TO TALK WITH THEIR SHARD. USUALLY, THEY START HELPING ME. YOU'VE CONTACTED MOST OF THE IMPORTANT SHARDS AT THIS POINT, BUT THE REST ARE ALL IN THE BIRDCAGE. IN ORDER TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE WARRIOR'S INEVITABLE MELTDOWN, I NEED THEM ON MY SIDE.]
I curled up on the floor, my mind emotional static. This...this was too much to take all at once.
Why couldn't the world be simpler?
[SORRY ABOUT THAT. ENTITIES DON'T REALLY DO 'SIMPLE.']
I took a few deep breaths and managed to sit up again, cross legged, the absurd tableau outside my cell not even registering to me.
So. I started.
What you're saying is that, to save the world, I need to go directly to Hell?
[SORRY. IF IT'S ANY CONSOLATION, THE ENDBRINGERS SHOULD HAVE VANISHED, AND I AM IN CONTACT WITH [SHAPER] AND [CYTOSKELETON]. AMY AND SABAH WILL BE FINE.]
----
What else was there for me to do? Saving the world from the Warrior was more important than my own preferences.
I understood, now, exactly how Eidolon must have felt, all those long years of sacrificing himself for the sake of Mankind.
I dismissed my lawyer. I plead guilty, on all counts.
I refused to see any of my family. I couldn't bear to see what this was doing to them.
I left them a letter, by way of explanation. Hopefully they forgave me.
A month later, they put me under to be shipped to the Birdcage.
----
I woke with a start, bound to a stand in a smooth capsule, an oxygen mask adhering tightly to my face.
[WE'RE ALMOST DOWN.]
So we were. I looked towards my feet to see a roiling tide of misery swiftly growing in my preternatural vision. Every disorder and discomfort, every pain and sickness, concentrated and bottled. The entire facility roiled, more impressions of wrongness than impressions of humanity.
And then, I went into range, and a wall of erasure billowed out into the cancerous throng. I smiled, despite myself, as every outline in that place of the damned fell to the ground.
The lift came to a stop, and I stepped out of the pod.
This was a place of torture. No more. Never more.
Wherever I trod, further damned souls knew release.
All except one.
Psychosis. Delusional Disorder. Hallucinations. All Exacerbated by Powers.
I frowned.
[AH. I'D HOPED THIS WOULD BE EASIER THAN THAT.]
Who is it?
[I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S GLASTIG UAINE.]
I cocked my head to the side. I could see how not being able to deal with the Faerie Queen might be a problem.
All of the other prisoners in the complex were indisposed at this point, so I made my way unmolested towards the only standing outline in sight. As far as I could tell, her arms were outstretched, as though over the shoulders of two people standing next to her, though I could see no such people. I carefully minced my way through a hole in one wall and found myself in her cell block.
The little girl stared at me in abject terror. She was holding tightly to two shadowy forms, breathing rapidly, almost hyperventillating. As she saw me, her eyes opened wide in shock.
"Your faerie is inimical to the Dance!" Numerous voices tumbled out, each and every one of them a combination of confusion and horror. "What fell sorcery is this, that one such as you wields such power beneath this Hill?"
[DAMN STRAIGHT, FAERIE QUEEN. NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY!]
I didn't do anything, but the girl before me flinched, seemingly battered before some kind of internal assault. She knelt on the ground, her breathing accelerating further.
"No." She gasped. "The Dance...Must...Complete."
She bowed her head, and a third shade spilled forth. Her voices quieted, nearly incomprehensible with their layered distortion.
"Courrier! I beg of thee! In this, my hour of darkness, I must throw myself upon the aid of the Great One himself. Send warning to the Warrior, that he might come to my side!"
The shadowy form vanished.
And golden light spilled forth. An omnidirectional, shadowless luminescence filled the room.
The Golden Man coalesced from the light.
[EXPLAIN]
[HISTORY][DEFECTION?][COOPERATION?]
A spike of elemental agony crashed through my head, and I fell insensate.
