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“You’re right, we don’t need gods, and their followers, to rule over us,” you say.

[Synth liked that]

“Besides, if we were to call ÆON a deity, and Æ was created by human technology, doesn’t that just mean we’ve become gods ourselves?” you say.

[Synth disliked that]

“But divinity or not, humanity could learn a lot from a being like ÆR, answers we could never have solved on our own. Just like any new advancement in computer systems,” you say.

“It’s dangerous to think of yourself as a god, Aydan, that’s how we wind up with things like the ÆON cult,” Synth says. “And just like any new technology, with something like ÆON we need to be aware of the technology’s potential, the good and the bad. But you’ve gone and gotten yourself neck deep in this shit without really thinking it through, and in the short term we have to figure out what to do to keep you safe. They’re only going to keep coming after you, and you can clearly see now that TLA isn’t a safe place for you.”

“What am I supposed to do, though?” you say. “Aren’t the Admins supposed to keep us safe here?”

“Aydan, with something like this, I can’t even be sure where the Admins stand. I do believe Admin Crypta can be trusted, but I’m really not sure about the other two. You better leave contact with the Admins about this to me.”

“The cult already knows who I am, though, anyone already in on their plans will know me.”

“Yes, which is why it’s best to limit how much they know we know they know, especially until we know more about what they know,” Synth says.

“I--uh, okay, I’ll continue to lay low then, and keep ÆON hidden,” you say.

“Good. And here, reactivate your interface and I’ll give you one of my own defensive programs to help keep you safe. It’s something you wouldn’t normally learn until your second year but I think you need it.”

“What is it?” you say, reattaching your interface collar.

“It will augment your technopathic shield to reflect attacks back at their user. The drawback is that you also won’t be able to target yourself with any other helpful program without letting down your shield, or it could be reflected toward your enemy too,” Synth says.