Rumi returned to their room after a few more minutes of being held. The chaste kiss we shared lingered in my mind as the door shut behind them. It may have simply been out of appreciation, but a part of me couldn't help but feel it had been more than that—the opening move of a courtship that had begun between us, perhaps.

  I would respond in kind when the opportunity arose to do so. For now, I would leave them to consider what they wanted their future to look like. There was a battle coming from the south, and we needed to prepare; I briefly considered visiting Nia'cyl's room in my dreams but ultimately decided that finishing my storage cavern was too high of a priority to put off.

  Opening a rift, I stepped from my room into the unfinished hole I'd been carving. I set my mind to modifying the blueprint I'd used for the small material storage tank in the refining room. These needed to be much larger and much more robust. They also needed to be modular enough that the small fabricator I currently had could effectively produce the pieces.

  Eventually, I would have access to fabricators the size of cities, but right now I had to work with what was available. I began to carve out more of the earth and sent a small ping over to Armela to check in on her progress. Apparently the man she'd decided to keep had been proving rather obedient; I suspected this was mostly out of self-preservation, as I came to know Armela, the more I came to understand how dangerous she was.

  I realized I may have fundamentally broken something within her after transforming her body. Perhaps she, too, needed someone to help keep her tethered to reality, like I did. Perhaps the man she'd assumed responsibility for would help to moderate some of her more… primal desires. Though since he was an assassin by trade, I feared that probably would not be his part to play.

  I learned the assassin was actually quite a high level compared to most people Armela had met. His access to sigils was quite extensive, and his combat proficiency would have easily put Armela into the dirt had she still been mortal. Though she was quick to point out that the man felt more like an impotent child to her now, which made the whole situation much more amusing for her.

  She'd taken to simply calling him her pet, and for his part, he seemed to take to the moniker readily. Again, likely out of the need for self preservation; in reality the man was probably running through endless scenarios on how to best escape or kill Armela.

  Honestly, that level of drive and the constant cat and mouse between them might just elevate both of their skills and combat instincts simultaneously. What happens when you force together an unstoppable assassin and an unkillable target? I was interested to find out. I just hoped that the man avoided pushing things too far and ultimately annoying Armela to the point of eradication, at least for his sake.

  Armela also let me know she had arranged a test for the man's loyalty; she would send him to Eprie ahead of us in order to gather information on the Church’s dealings and, if the opportunity presented itself, to kill Cardinal Heltor. She reasoned it was only fair that the Cardinal be undone by the very means he'd sought to use against us. I admitted that there was some level of poetic justice to the mission and gave her my approval.

  I asked how she was planning to ensure the man didn't simply escape into the wilderness or alert the church to our actions as soon as they arrived in Eprie. She smugly replied that she'd constructed a drone of her own and had tasked it with monitoring his progress from afar. If the man deviated or made any move to reveal his intentions, then the drone would summarily execute him. Once again I marveled at how quickly she was adapting to the use of technology and her own body.

  She seemed quite pleased by how impressed I was and sheepishly admitted that getting a handle on how to best use the new tools at her disposal was rapidly becoming her favorite pastime. I encouraged her to continue growing her familiarity with her systems and sent along a small information packet with access to the villagers’ network. This would allow her to monitor their communications and rewards from my… program? Gacha? Lottery? I wasn't entirely certain what to call it. I asked Armela, but the only input she had was that she didn't care what it was called. Typical.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my little rewards program was woefully barebones. The screens had no flair; just a simple text page with a single image of whatever the awarded item would be. A static image at that. Splitting off another portion of my thoughts, I manipulated the layout of the system. I wanted the first-time activation to feel like a novel experience to the users; something welcoming and memorable that would colour the rest of their time spent using it. I crafted a splash screen on initialization, a onetime title screen to greet new users when the necklace began its pairing process.

  The screen would start simply: a small green seed tucked neatly away under some rich brown dirt. Only to begin to germinate and spring forth from the dark earth and out into the open air. It would sprout rapidly and grow and grow; blossoming into an incredibly massive tree that scraped the very edge of the atmosphere. Its leaves as large as ponds, clouds brushing between the branches, a blazing sunset against the purest blue sky you could imagine. And just when the user thought the tree had finished growing, the trunk would once again rocket skyward before the screen cut to black.

  This would be when the introductory prompts would begin, opening up the menus to the user to offer their own input for a more tailored experience, or let the necklace do it for them. The option to fine-tune the system would remain available to them at any time throughout their involvement with it. I decided the screens needed some stylization, so I added a border detail. It was an animated mural of springs and gears, pistons and cables; for effect, I added in all the sigils I'd seen so far.

  I liked that effect so much that I added a subroutine to continue to add more sigils as I came across them without my direct input. I looked over the template and nodded; it looked good. Looked… since the screens were being projected directly into the eyes, the person with the necklace would need to have a working ocular system to interact with it… there was no option for those with a vision impairment. That wouldn't do at all; I needed to ensure that absolutely no one was left out of this program.

  There were two solutions to this, from what I could tell. The first was a short-term solution: have the screens transcribed to the users so that they could listen to the information contained therein. The second, long-term solution was to have their blindness cured. Vice versa for those who were deaf but could see. Small repairs like that wouldn't be an issue for my god-gifted cells, and since they were flooding into the host's body already, making some minute adjustments like fixing eyes or ears wasn't beyond reach.

  I would allow these effects to be interpreted as miracles from serving my God, rather than explain them. It would be centuries before their technology approached the capability of detecting what my cells were, let alone what they were doing; by that point it wouldn't matter one way or the other if they discovered it on their own or I stepped out and explicitly stated what was occurring. They'd all have long since fallen into the legion of my religion.

  As for the oration to the blind, I needed a voice. As much as I liked Armela, her voice wasn't particularly… soothing. There was always a rough husk in it, an abrasive rasp that hinted clearly at her Wolfkin lineage. No… I needed something… sultry, aloof but enticing, smooth and seductive. I needed Ava. Her dulcet tones would pair perfectly for speaking to the masses through the network; the soft electrical buzz which underpinned every syllable of her speech would also add to the mechanical theme as well.

  I quickly compiled a library of Ava speaking every word I'd ever learned, then simulated her speaking every word there could be based on the context of the languages I'd decoded. It wouldn't be true A.I, but it would be able to speak or pronounce any word that was presented to the system. Naturally, I excluded the language of the Song; if I attempted to simulate it, then I would likely run out of processing power and storage capacity in my brain.

  The pronunciation of names might be tricky, as they didn't follow the same rules as other words, and were largely left to the creativity of the parents. So I added a recognition feature where the network would prompt the user to utter their proper first name upon pairing and then use that until instructed to do otherwise. As a test, I had ‘Ava’ read back the page of sample text that had been generated.

  It was brutally nostalgic even though it hadn't even been a full 5 days since I'd last seen her; the time we'd spent together really made a larger impact on me than I could have expected. I finally broke out into the main superstructure of my storage cavern and redoubled the amount of clawing limbs I was using to tear away the stone walls; my progress was good.

  There was something… off about Ava's voice, though. It was too flat, a little too unemotional. The syntax was all there, and the annunciations were true to her speech, but the inflection was off. It was more monotone and droning than she had ever been. I tweaked the algorithm, shifting pitches and cadence around grammatical context clues; since it could read the entire page in under a microsecond, it could use the breakdown of punctuation and keywords to plan the tone of its response.

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  I also gave this particular subroutine the ability to monitor the traffic across the entire network, ensuring unlimited access to every interaction the people had with it. The recognition software being written would then use the input generated by the people to better refine responses and navigate communications; hopefully eventually leading to the simulacrum of a network personality.

  Ah, so that was going to be the name. This entire system would inevitably be orchestrated by a simulacrum of Ava. So it would be Ava's network. The Avanet. I quickly added a small piece of animated flair to the startup splash screen, welcoming the user to The Avanet; it felt right. Pleased with my changes, I once again looked over the current iteration and felt proud. I was building a tool to link the community in a way they'd never experienced, and likely would never experience again.

  A small moment of parental affection washed over me as the thought of guiding this fledgling flock into a fine future ran across my mind. I would need to ensure the content was moderated appropriately. Everything would have its place, and since the necklaces were biometrically tied to the users, this would mean they could not falsify their credentials. Military intelligence would be gated for people with designated military ranks.

  Consent would be baked into the very essence of sharing between members; before someone could send, say… a picture, The Avanet would scan the packet of information, discern what the contents were, and then ask the potential recipient if they wanted to accept said material. Children would only be granted access to the wider Avanet once they reached adulthood, which I’d currently set to 20. I thought about giving them access to a modified version of the Avanet, but ultimately decided the cons outweighed the pros.

  At most, they could contact their immediate guardians in emergencies, but the rest of the community features would be locked out of their reach.

  This would all be to protect those who were not capable of protecting themselves, and to give those who could protect themselves every opportunity to deny material they may not want to interact with. I wanted to ensure that users of The Avanet could make informed decisions regarding how they conducted themselves in the community. But I didn't want to restrict opinions to the point of neutering the community's freedom of expression; there would always be a need for people to speak their minds and voice their concerns.

  Dissent would inevitably strengthen a system capable of adapting to it, and I wanted this system to grow and evolve with the people. All the same, giving users the unfettered ability to say whatever they wanted without repercussion was not the way forward. Even with their name attached to their words, some would feel comfortable spreading misinformation and hatred among their peers; if not to further their own agenda, then simply to garner a reaction from the masses.

  This needed to be curbed before it could begin. The ever-watching eye of The Avanet would constantly be on the lookout for radicalism, misinformation, and hate, and when such vitriol was found, it would be gated behind a perfunctory message informing all who wished to see it what it was. For example, someone saying the sky was pink would have their message gated behind an alert stating there was no evidence to support their assertion and that it should be taken as an opinion, not a fact.

  The messages themselves would not be removed and would remain for all to see at any time; the speech would not be censored by elimination. It would be censored by acknowledgement and education, once again allowing people to make informed decisions about the content they consumed. Eventually, this network would spread across the globe, and the small, insular group of the village would find themselves among a truly massive sea of people with all different opinions, beliefs, values, and expectations. The thought that they would all mesh cohesively with no problem was absurd.

  So provisions would need to be made in order to blunt the savagery that could be spawned between two opposing peoples. Unmoderated interactions would only deepen animosity and allow the unmitigated spread of misinformation. I'd seen it before and did not want my people to go down that path. The Avanet would forever remain outside their ability to alter, manipulate, or change. I would be the sole author of it, and if users didn't like, appreciate, or respect the directions I took, then they were free to create their own Avanet and see where that led them. I would not have my platform become a haven for those who wished to do harm, or enable harm through misdirection, at least not without a fight.

  This was an incredibly powerful tool, but handled incorrectly, it could lead to the splintering of what should be a unified body. The entire Avanet, and those using it, should never find themselves torn on what was or wasn't true. The purpose of the system was not to drive up interaction or produce profits; it was strictly to enable those of the Mechanriel faith to better manage their lives and interactions. Obviously, I couldn't say it wasn't there to push an agenda; aspects of the faith would permeate throughout the system.

  Scraps of literature and proverbs would occasionally scroll down the borders of pages, Ava would have an entire library of quotes, anecdotes, stories, books, and philosophy on tap for anyone who was interested to listen to them, or read in their spare time. Part of the weekly itinerary for people who wished to enlighten themselves would be dedicated to scholastic endeavors. There would be no need for schools or universities, as the Avanet would be more than capable of providing the material for teaching those interested in learning.

  I hadn't quite decided whether there would be a mandatory curriculum for those under the age of majority just yet. Obviously, there were incredible gains to be had in ensuring those of the Mechanriel faith had a stable and robust education from early on, but forcing people's hands like that was a difficult thing for me to come to terms with. The freedom they would soon be afforded by the wealth gained through their dailies and weeklies would significantly increase the time they could dedicate to leisure activities. Whether that ended up being education or some other pursuit would best be left to the discretion of the parents and, eventually, the children reaching the age of maturity.

  I settled on a passive learning track in the interim. Their daily interactions would be dotted with factoids, tool-tips, and sporadic questions for them to work through as their curiosity grew and they explored more of the world around them. Inevitably, I would introduce a curriculum like I’d given Seta, but for now, this would be enough.

  They wouldn't need to interact with it directly, and it wouldn't be anything necessary to enable the use of their necklace, but hopefully, after enough time, it would nudge them into deeper learning. I could be happy with that compromise for now. Before pushing the update through the system, I created a dedicated page for suggestions and improvements that people would like to see made to the system. I set a parameter that measured how many requests were made for any individual feature compared to the overall user count by percentage.

  When any suggestion rose above 25% of users making the request, it would be implemented after review. I didn't want to lock out the minority users from potential quality of life changes made to the system, but I didn't want to implement things based on 0.01% of the user base either. 25% seemed like an appropriate mix, but I'd have to monitor it until we reached a truly large sample size. With that done, I pushed the update through.

  The cavern was nearing completion now. I suspected I'd generated some truly prodigious piles of rubble up on the surface with the amount of stone I'd excavated. Perhaps they could be put to use laying more robust roads leading away from Hilst at some point. I added that idea to my ever-growing list of projects and turned my attention to starting the refinery back up. Armela had cleared out of the room after the assassin’s departure and was now working through several sword-forms in the centre of the camp.

  I didn't know if it was something she was being guided through with the aid of the system, or if they were forms she'd practiced before, but she seemed to be deeply focused on them. She hadn't bothered lighting any torches, obviously having grown accustomed to being able to see in any light condition. With her body's ability to remember things perfectly, and her not having any true ‘muscles’ anymore, I supposed this must have been a sort of meditation for her. I decided I would finish carving out my storage cavern and then join her for a late dinner.

  I instructed the fabricator to produce panels for the storage tanks using iron and then gathered 5 drones to begin the work of assembling them in the cavern. Each tank would be supported on steel struts, cradling them off the ground and better distributing their weight across their surface. Hatches would be on two sides to allow manual access if it was ever required, and a string of LED lights would be suspended from the ceiling down the centre of each row.

  My digbots had made good progress into the ground, and I would soon need additional fabricators to begin building a small army of drones. These drones would then set about building additional refineries and fabricators until the point where production could be automated. After that, the planet would resemble a massive ant’s nest of mining and fabricating locations. A webbed network of tunnels and facilities used for my production would soon pervade the entire planet’s crust.

  I set my mind to begin work on a blueprint for a massive boring worm. A mechanical behemoth capable of chewing through dirt and stone as it inched its way beneath the surface of the planet. These would be the main bulk of my mining effort, left to roam the planet, creating vast reinforced tunnels in their wake. Each worm would have built-in fabricators to drop digbots at locations where rich veins of minerals were detected. Because they would be left to roam all on their own, they would need to be self-sufficient, able to repair damage, replace broken parts, and produce other worms.

  They would also need to fend off attacks from any creatures they potentially ran into during their travels; I wasn’t sure what other monstrosities hid beneath the surface of the planet, but with the appearance of goblins, there would be many things lurking in the ground's dark. With that in mind, I had the blueprint changed to add thick armor and dedicated laser defense turrets. As an additional safety net, I had each work host a small fleet of 20 drones to manage upkeep and defense applications.

  The final dimensions of the Worm would be 20 meters in diameter and 140 meters long. This length would accommodate storage tanks, a small refinery, two fabricators, drone storage, defense platforms, and living accommodations for any non-hostile life that needed somewhere to shelter while traversing the deep dark of the planet. The worm itself would need some amount of agency in order to avoid pitfalls, water, or lava chambers so a host of powerful detection equipment would be lined down its core along with a moderately powerful computer core in order to process the data and make adjustments to its course accordingly.

  The entire front section, including the rotating head, would primarily be made of my cells. This included the crushing rollers, as well as the extendable feet used for pushing the head into the material to be excavated. They would see the most wear, and I didn’t want them to be constantly breaking down or being replaced, so having them formed from the strongest material available to me made sense.

  The rest of the body would be suspended by a combination of tank treads and less robust feet. If the worm ever traveled down a previously excavated path, then it would be handy to allow it to move quickly. In these events, the tank treads would go down, and the worm would motor through the tunnel. But while digging operations were being carried out, the feet would be used in order to brace the remainder of the body against the walls of the tunnel and provide additional leverage.

  The tunnels would be lined with a combination of steel struts and cement produced from the crushed stone being torn out. Any additional stone would be sent via rift into quarry deposits on the surface for later reclamation and reuse. This would be an incredibly complicated machine, and my mind was currently estimating about a week to finish the rough draft of the design based on my specifications.

  With the cavern done, refinery operating, and fabricator producing parts, I exited the cave and made my way to Armela. Her focus didn’t break as I neared, and the incredibly precise movements she was working through captured my attention. There was an unbelievable grace to them, no shake in her hands, no look of exertion on her face, not a bead of sweat to be seen. Just a fluid, wondrous dance of well-practiced motions. Then she was coming at me. In a blink, her form whipped forward, sword lashing out at my throat.