Ætherglow #176

You think better of rushing ahead and turn to your Systemization training. Your familiar manifests from the æther, in its three-scroll-unified chaotic attractor shape.

“Alright you cute little mathematical curiosity, go follow that light.” You establish a sensory link to its perspective in the æther. As it flies down the hallway, gliding on its three flowing spirals like wings, you simultaneously perceive your own surroundings and your familiar’s. Though you’ve practiced this, it’s still disorienting. You pull the inputs apart into a side-by-side display in your vision.

It’s flying fast down a long series of passageways with little to see except the bare walls and the warm blue light.

“Aydan...” You hear a voice in your nearby æther. You focus on that side of your senses to make sure it was you and not your familiar hearing it. “Aydan!” Definitely, it’s nearby, calling to you from a nearby hallway. You look down that way and see only darkness.

You’ll have to provide your own light with a bit of EvoTech. Sending a glowing white orb down the hallway, you see them--Synth. Or something like them. This avatar looks much younger than them, less than 100 months old.

With your orb lighting the way, you enter the hallway and approach.

“Aydan!”

“Synth?” You get a clearer look at the avatar. They have Synth’s pale white skin and short white hair. A metal band encircling their head marks Synthesis-04 on their forehead. “So you’re Synthesis-04?”

They nod. “And you’re Aydan, I remember you.”

“Of course, we just dissociated together.”

“We lost you, I remember. Something happened...” 04 says.

“Yeah. It was Dyavol,” you say. Synthesis-04 shudders when you say that name.

“It can’t be! He’s dead!” 04 says. “Crypta tore his mind to shreds, I saw it! Nothing left. Nothing!”

“Then it’s just an echo of him, some program the lab computer is running. But it only seems to be affecting me,” you say. “Good thing I found you.”

“Kind of,” 04 says. “When we came down here, we lost you, but I also lost my systers too.”

“Well that’s no good.”

“I’m worried about them. They won’t remember. They’ll know this place, but they won’t know why they’re here. Only I have the memories. They’ll be scared...”