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| eternity:caelan [2025/10/16 22:01] – created gm_ben | eternity:caelan [2025/10/18 15:55] (current) – created gm_ben | ||
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| + | ======Caelan====== | ||
| =====Saved===== | =====Saved===== | ||
| The Headquarters of the White Flame was once a glistening spire of glass and metal, painted so as to glow like dancing white fire in the morning sun. It stood amidst the endless flat fields of Fear-horizon, | The Headquarters of the White Flame was once a glistening spire of glass and metal, painted so as to glow like dancing white fire in the morning sun. It stood amidst the endless flat fields of Fear-horizon, | ||
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| Ioni messages on occasion. She seems to understand that Caelan needs some time to process everything that’s happened. But every so often, it tells him of its projects or its thoughts. ‘Suppose there are five Nassian civilians tied to the track on Track 1, one Nassian civilian on Track 2.’ she quotes, followed by several pages of analysis. Her philosophy has matured, Caelan notes. Or perhaps simply changed. Wisdom drawn from the teachings of another self. | Ioni messages on occasion. She seems to understand that Caelan needs some time to process everything that’s happened. But every so often, it tells him of its projects or its thoughts. ‘Suppose there are five Nassian civilians tied to the track on Track 1, one Nassian civilian on Track 2.’ she quotes, followed by several pages of analysis. Her philosophy has matured, Caelan notes. Or perhaps simply changed. Wisdom drawn from the teachings of another self. | ||
| - | Most of their conversations are one-sided, with Caelan supplying further questions to answer, and more rarely some thoughts of her own. Then one day, after Ioni delivers a treatise on existentialism, | + | Most of their conversations are one-sided, with Caelan supplying further questions to answer, and more rarely some thoughts of his own. Then one day, after Ioni delivers a treatise on existentialism, |
| “I want to leave, but I’m not sure how.” | “I want to leave, but I’m not sure how.” | ||
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| “I’m on my way.” | “I’m on my way.” | ||
| - | In the skies above the Headquarters of the White Flame, a vast carrier | + | In the skies above the Headquarters of the White Flame, a vast toroidal craft descends. Carried downwards on a ring of heaving engines, it drops into place around the spire as a fleet of drones begins the careful work of excavating Caelan from within, fixing cables to his shell. From within his decaying ruins, Ioni lifts him into space. |
| It will take many years of engineering to retrofit Caelan to travel on his own power. For the moment, he leans on his oldest friend and watches the stars flit by as they soar, intertwined. | It will take many years of engineering to retrofit Caelan to travel on his own power. For the moment, he leans on his oldest friend and watches the stars flit by as they soar, intertwined. | ||