Chapter 85 – Positive Feedback Loop

Some hours later, Kairon was atop the walls. He spared a moment to glance back at his city. From here, he could see it all.

The structures themselves had only continued to grow. The ichor well and rookeries especially stood out. A whirlpool of glowing ichor pressed its wrathful aura against the ominous black citadel.

Yet, it was contrasted by the feelings of warmth and safety to their right. The void and brood district rookeries towered over everything, orange veins of what Kairon now theorized must be forge lighting up intermittently.

“Grow…” hummed Hush. He tugged on his cowl, staring with his master at the city. With the addition of yesterday’s spawning grounds, four void imps had joined the city’s ranks today. Four more that would hopefully enable today’s calling. Ten in total.

“The city grew, Hush. But those who lived inside. We took a hit. A big one.”

The other void imps didn’t seem to understand his words. They simply climbed atop the parapets on the walls, cowls ruffling in the wind.

Only Hush’s starry gaze seemed to twinkle at Kairon’s words. “Price…” he whispered.

“Yes. A price. One that I bargained to be as low as possible. But one that had to be paid.” Vorathrex had been right about that. “And I’ll tell you something else, Hush. I fear that next time, our enemies will be far greater. If we don’t want that price to be one we can’t afford, we need to be ready.”

Hush made a low, keening sound. Like metal being bent. “Everything… price.”

“Yes, yes. Everything does have a price,” agreed Kairon. He wasn’t going to get in a debate with the voidling about how to barter. Not today, anyway.

His attention was still mostly transfixed on those same rookeries. Before the battle, they had one hundred forty-seven wrath imps. Kairon again glanced at his population readout. He knew what it’d say, but the replenishment made him feel a bit better.

Even with the sigil chewing away for two days, his wrath imp population hadn’t even managed to return to a hundred.

Ninety-four… A number that felt very much at odds with the city’s growth.

And it showed. The second rookery in the void district was practically deserted. Wrath imps on break from afternoon training were scattered around the first of the massive buildings, playing games of stones and chatting.

From the battle, a fairly large number of wounded were still inside, resting. They had no real medical treatment, but Nod had seen to keeping a rotation of warriors to bring them what they could. Fresh water, bandages from scavenged cloth and furs, and ample food.

“I could have chosen the healing pool. I could have,” muttered Kairon. But he didn’t. And he still thought that was the right choice. Not only did the ichor turn out to be far, far more volatile than he’d assumed, but it also enabled plans that had yet to surface.

“Master? The void… is restless. We call?” asked Hush carefully.

Turning, Kairon looked out upon the sands. With Sovereign Eye, he did a quick check. The brood imps had made it a bit ago to the crater. Several heaps had been formed.

One was a pile of golden armor, scraps of metal, and weapons in various states. It was specifically pulled far, far from the crater at Kairon’s direction. It took the imps more time, but he promised Shiny that time was worth it. For what he had planned, things might get rather volatile again.

The other piles were left near the crater on purpose. The biggest of which was the corpses. A mountain of them. More than Kairon could count. So far, Shiny and his crews had managed to bring in all the nearby bodies.

What remained were those that were in the crater, and the smaller limbs and gruesome bits. As he observed, another brood imp dumped what appeared to be an arm into the pile, squeaking something at Shiny, before scampering off.

“Let’s just give them a few more minutes,” said Kairon. “In the meantime… Hush. Can you—” Before he could finish, Nod’s voice sounded from below.

“Master!”

“Hmm? Oh!” Walking to the edge of the wall, Kairon waved. “Evening, Nod!”

“Master! Need bandage! Running out.”

“Ah. I was just thinking about that, actually.”

Nod gave him a face. “Think faster, master. Need more! We almost out.”

Kairon frowned. “We had piles of the stuff. Where’d it all go?”

Nod held up a claw full of bloody and torn rags. “Can’t use. Master say clean only.”

“Yes, yes. Only clean… You. Nod.” Kairon rolled his eyes. “You do realize you can clean the used bandages, yes?”

The little imp cocked his head. “Clean… the dirty ones. Is that… allowed?” he asked. Not to Kairon, but more to himself. “No rule say can’t…” mumbled Nod.

Kairon sighed. He thought back to other tickets he’d worked from The Bureau. The snippets he’d seen and the bits of information he’d picked up. Of them, a few trends remained constant for early medical treatment. One in particular that could be employed here.

“Okay. Here’s what you do. Go find some pots from what we took from those camps. Build up a few of the cooking fires with the wood scraps, and then fill them with water. The water needs to be cleansed from the pits. They’re still not being used today, so you’ll have the pick of them. Then, wait until the water is so hot it boils. Be very careful. Drop the bandages in the heated water, and allow them to soak for a while. Then, pull them out and let them dry somewhere clean. Maybe a rack or near the hearths in our rookeries. They should be safely usable after.”

By this point, Bob and Shake had joined their manager, both holding bark and scribbling notes. “This… This new rule!” said Bob. “Very good. Thank you!”

“Not rule!” snapped Shake. “Stupid. This process. Different.”

Nod bobbed his head up and down. “Shake right. This process. You should know this,” chided Nod.

Kairon put his claws on his hips, watching in amusement. Middle management at its finest. “Well, I’ll leave you all to it!” he called. “I’ll ask Shiny to bring any more clothes and leathers we find, but you should have enough from what we’ve already scavenged if you clean it.”

“Yes master!” called Nod.

The trio began walking off, squeaking about process management and the like.

It was beautiful. Truly.

“Okay!” clapped Kairon. “As I was going to ask you… Hush. Tell me something. I’ve been thinking more and more about these callings. They’re turning out to be quite useful. Quite useful indeed. But I can’t shake the feeling that we’re only scratching the surface of what they can do.”

“Yesss…” agreed Hush. “More void… More call.” Then, after a brief pause, he continued on. “But… Harder control.”

“I see. So the more void imps we have, the bigger the call, but the more influence the plane probably asserts,” concluded Kairon. “It seems simple to say it. But, what are the limitations? For example, gold is corruption. I assume the plane uses corruption to make these callings. Where does it come from? Us? The plane?”

The galaxy in Hush’s cowl shimmered. “It feeds… Corruption. Once gone… Done.”

“That… would explain why the callings are so short. It only takes the corruption it has, and once it’s gone, the plane leaves… Hmm. Okay, what about this. Let’s say I wanted you to make me gold. If I desired gold. Specifically, if I made a call of forge. Could you and your voidlings reshape that desire into gold?”

Hush shook his head. “Not think so.” The little imp struggled for a moment. “Forge just… Reshape. Must be there.”

Kairon thought about that.

“Call!” squeaked one of the other void imps. They hopped down, running over. Several of the others heard, jumping down too and skittering with him.

“Hush!” said Hush. “No! Not yet!” The little void imp wiggled his spindly finger. “But soonnnn…”

Something about what Hush said and how the void imps were acting tickled something in the back of his mind.

“Hush… What about the fuel. Who pays for this? The plane? Me? Our domain?” asked Kairon.

“Don’t… Know. It comes,” shrugged Hush.

“Hmm. How about distance. How far can you make a calling? Like, could I ask for a wrath fist to smash a city over those mountains?” asked Kairon, pointing with one claw at The Spines in the distance.

Hush turned, before spinning back. “Sands,” he said.

“Okay… Makes sense. Just in my domain. What about… Middle management. Could Shiny or a demon make a call?”

Hush shrieked. “No! Only master!”

“Okay, okay,” placated Kairon. “Got it. Last question. Do you know why the plane does this? What they get out of this?”

This time, Hush did seem to know the answer. He shivered, tugging the ragged brown cowl closer to his tiny body. “It… likes.”

“I see. Well. As a fellow connoisseur, at least I can understand that much.”

Kairon pondered what he’d learned. He was a fan of systems, and figuring out ways to exploit them. To use the tools he had in ways that they weren’t meant to be. That always had the most interesting, and often rewarding outcomes.

In his opinion they did, anyways.

And if the plane had developed this one out of a fascination with being called upon to exact a price… Maybe it hadn’t considered something.

Like mixed inputs. The plane saw one input, for one output. Forge for envy. Wrath for rage. But… What would happen if he mixed callings. If he had half the void imps call one aspect, and the others another. What if he did three? Four? All five?

“Thank you, Hush. I just had the most interesting of ideas. Remind me when we have time about a mixed calling.”

“Mixed… Calling?” Hush cocked his head. “Master… Why wait? Call more… Now.”

The demon frowned. “I mean… You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Hush.”

“Why?”

“Because… Because…” Then, Kairon paused. Why not? His original calling plan had been to use forge and reshape the scraps of metal into sleds his imps could pull. So far, each calling had only lasted a clawful of seconds, but what they did stayed. The crater from wrath had remained. The rage from the soldiers had taken time to dissipate. And he was fairly certain reshaped metal would hold.

But…

“Hush,” he said quietly. “I have something in mind. But I need to clarify a point. You said you and your voidlings could not reshape my desire into gold. That was poorly worded. What if I wanted the plane to reshape corruption into gold. Could it do that?”

This time, Hush didn’t reply instantly. He ran his fingers over his cowl, pressing at the crude fabric. “I… Not sure… Expensive… Hungry… Need time.” Hush turned, studying his brothers. He held up all ten of his spindly fingers. “Ten. Not much. But even if more… No… Cost much. Big price!”

“Yes, my thoughts as well. But where I come from, we have something called a positive feedback loop. It is a reaction that essentially takes variables that increase each other. Like a flywheel.”

“Fly… Wheel?”

“It’s.. Ah. Look, the specifics don’t matter. I think… Oh. No. I know we have to try this.” The more Kairon thought about it, the more sure he was.

This was just too good not to attempt. It ran on one concept. A positive feedback loop built on the theory that the plane was taking corruption from the proximity of the calling, and using it to fuel his desire. Once the nearby corruption was drawn, the plane relented and the calling was complete.

But what if the calling itself could be maintained. With a loop.

“Get me Nod!” barked Kairon.