Chapter 36: Aetherprint

  I swallowed hard. I already knew Stanford had been pressured from both sides, but this intro made it even more terrifying – he had accepted his death long before it came.

  I continued reading the final paragraph of the page:

  If you’re reading this and you’re not my daughter, Thea Stanford, I ask you to pass this journal to her. Everything I wrote here is for her eyes alone - so she’d know what I went through trying to save her.

  Oops...

  Well, anyways:

  Thea, darling, I know it didn’t always seem that way, but everything I did was for one reason only: to keep you safe.

  You’ve likely realized by now that my methods – despite being overbearing – were necessary. And even then, they weren’t enough. Because they took you away.

  I love you more than anything, and I wish we could meet again. But knowing that’s unlikely, I can at least die in peace – because I know Zee will rescue and protect you, no matter what.

  Zee?

  Who’s that? A person…or – my eyes drifted to the spot on the floor where the pile of automaton parts had once been – an automaton?

  Curious, I flipped the page and kept reading.

  In the new page’s first paragraph, Stanford described his first and only meeting with Valdemar:

  Many things were said about Valdemar in the upper circles of Skyhaven – that he’s a madman, an agent of chaos, a bloodthirsty anarchist. Some even quoted our long-forgotten and abandoned religious texts and called him the Divine Judge.

  And after meeting him for the one and only time, face to mask, I can’t say he’s none of those things.

  But what I can say is that he’s a refined man, one who carries himself with a poise that suggests elite social upbringing (he might’ve been a Skyhavener all along) or at the very least, an incredible actor.

  I tried to deduce as much as I could about him, but not a sliver of skin was visible beneath his ensemble. The hood of his cloak concealed his hair entirely, and the gloves on his hands robbed me of the opportunity to even guess his age.

  It’s also true what they say about his COG – he doesn’t have one. He simply chooses not to carry it. Libra would say it’s because he’s the symbol of the revolution, and the symbol of the revolution cannot wield the very device he seeks to liberate the people from. But I believe it’s more practical than that. He must’ve learned long ago that House Civics can track each and every citizen in Solvane through their COGs in real-time (I heard of this as well, but could never understand how).

  A COG traveling regularly between all three levels would eventually betray him.

  Smart.

  House Civics can track us all in real-time? What?

  That was an unsettling thought, but I resumed reading:

  Considering this, he wasn’t alone – and I assume he rarely is. He was flanked by a bodyguard at all times – a burly man with a deep scar on his right cheek.

  But it was –

  Wait a minute – did he just say ‘a deep scar of his right cheek’?

  My mind immediately flashed to the guard at the entrance of the Divine.

  Many people in Solvane could have a scar on their cheek, but that…felt too good to be a coincidence. Especially considering someone slipped the key to Stanford’s house inside my pocket.

  It had to be him.

  So…was Valdemar the second looper after all? Or was it his bodyguard - Captain Duran?

  I resumed reading:

  But it was when he presented me with the secrets of the COG – secrets than even I, in all my years in the CMA, wasn’t privy to…secrets only the three High Technicians of House Innovation know – that I truly understood how terrifying this man is, why Cecilia chose to help him, and why the Primarch’s so afraid of him.

  I couldn’t tell if he was a genius who figured it all out by himself, if he managed to recruit one of the High Technicians into his ranks, or if Libra had kidnapped one and tortured the knowledge out of them. The fact that all three options feel equally plausible is what makes him so frightening.

  Thea – whatever you do, after you’re free, with Zee by your side, keep away from him. I suspect he’ll try to contact you, just like he did with your mother. Stay away. He is dangerous.

  He told me he would rescue you if I helped him. But I don’t trust him.

  He used every tactic in the book to manipulate me: guilt-tripping me with the mentions of your mother, and when that didn’t work, he calmly switched to using your safety as leverage.

  I didn’t trust him, but I couldn’t refuse him either. Not really. So instead, I agreed to his proposal, but decided then to take matters into my own hands. I used the knowledge he gave me to build what he asked me to, but I also used it to build Zee.

  And the knowledge he shared? Something I had only heard whispered in rumors years ago – but apparently it was true: Aetherprint.

  Then, everything suddenly made sense - even House Civic's tracking.

  My COG suddenly beeped with a notification, cutting my reading session short.

  [17:45]

  [Notification]

  [Dear Annual Expo attendees, a message from your leader will now play through the Divine’s central phonotube array]

  What? Dalton Rose was giving an announcement back at the Expo? Okay…

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  I just shrugged, then continued to the next page:

  It’s a known fact that COGs operate on frequencies – similar in principle to those we use for phonotube radio communication, yet far more advanced and specialized.

  These COG-frequencies allow for effortless scanning and synchronization between devices. They enable Ironwatch to configure their automatons to distinguish between friend and foe.

  But while these frequencies are real, they only tell part of the story.

  Because beneath them lies the truth – the Aetherprint.

  It’s like a fingerprint. Unique to every Aetheris crystal.

  But not only that.

  It’s also unique to every individual. Because within us lies an invisible layer of raw mana – our very own Aetherprint.

  When we’re given our COGs at age eighteen – when they calibrate them behind closed doors using a drop of our blood – they’re actually tuning the device to our Aetherprint. Binding it to the one and only person it will ever respond to while taking away a piece of our Aetherprint for themselves – to control us.

  Our entire world doesn’t just run on an array of frequencies. WE are its frequencies.

  Everything in Solvane – every automaton, every interface, every system that responds to our COGs – isn’t just reacting to a piece of data written about us somewhere. No. It reacts to our individual Aetherprint with their Aetherprints.

  Our COGs never run out of power because we are the ones powering them just like an Aetheris powers the automaton and every other machine.

  To an extent - WE ARE MADE OF MANA.

  I stopped reading.

  What the fuck…?

  I mean, it does sound logical, but…saying we’re made of mana? I’m not so sure about that…

  I flipped to the next page, where Stanford really began diving into the details:

  I didn’t believe him at first. For a moment, I truly thought he was mad for putting faith in something like this. But he presented all the proof. And I was left convinced.

  He asked me to use the knowledge of the Aetherprint to build a device that would "overwhelm COGs".

  Since the Aetherprint acts as the power source of one’s COG, he theorized that if a COG could be tricked into thinking it was consuming too much of it, it would overload – like the regular overheating mechanism, but without the warning message.

  He wanted COGs to explode.

  But he wasn’t just aiming for a single explosion either.

  He planned to load the blood samples – stolen from House Civic’s Census Archives – into a device that could overload the COGs linked to those chosen Aetherprints.

  A mass detonation.

  Back then, I didn’t dare ask which COGs he intended to target. Nor did I ask if he meant for them to explode quietly in the night, while their users had taken them off before bed…or while they were still wearing them.

  Knowing the metals used in COG construction, a blast like that wouldn’t just take off someone’s arm. The shrapnel, the proximity of the device to vital organs – it would be fatal.

  But I didn’t care.

  I would’ve done anything to save you, Thea.

  So I proceeded with his request, while at the same time I used the knowledge he gave me to build Zee. The only reason I’m telling you all this is so you’d know how it operatea after I’m gone.

  My heart thundered as another wave of Déjà vu surged through me.

  Did…did that happen at the Divine? Did Valdemar blow up everyone’s COGs?

  No, no, no…surely not everyone’s.

  The Census Archives definitely didn’t include the oligarchs and their blood. Theirs – or anyone else important – would have been kept privately. More securely.

  And he wouldn’t target regular citizens. Not someone like Trent.

  I could only hope Valdemar had some standards. I knew he was going to bring calamity – Erebus – to our world. He already did. And still, part of me wanted to believe that Trent’s death hadn’t been that painful…

  The next pages detailed Stanford’s work on Valdemar’s device. It seemed that the project had taken him quite some time with the dates stated above his notes ranging from almost a year ago and until last month. But even then, the last page on the topic in the journal didn’t mention any breakthrough.

  Then I remembered the note I’d found in his trash can. If my hunch was correct and that note was recent, then if Stanford had managed to complete the device, it must’ve happened shortly before his death.

  As for the ‘Zee’ he kept mentioning – that filled the rest of the journal, right after. It was a messy section, skipping over many important steps that might’ve helped me understand what Zee actually did – why it was special.

  12/12/706

  Calling it GH-0 for now. Guardian Hound. Not final. Placeholder.

  So, I was right. It was a high-mobility automaton. A hound-type.

  01/02/707

  Finished Core. Now comes the hard part. Blood would’ve been better. Have to improvise.

  02/02/707

  Hair it is.

  03/02/707

  First attempt to make GH-0’s core respond to Thea’s Aetherprint – failed.

  17/02/707

  Failed again. Still no lock. It’s not blood.

  25/02/707

  Breakthrough. Slow feeding through the Integration Port did it. Finally responds. Ready for design phase.

  Then came pages of raw formulas – Stanford calculating the center of mass and stability, stress thresholds, torque ranges, actuator requirements, even Aetheris consumption estimate.

  But just as he started moving forward, new problems hit.

  06/04/707

  Prototype complete. GH-0 is now alive. Running tests.

  07/04/707

  Major setback. Once on the move GH-0 loses track of Thea’s Aetherprint. It can only track it while static. More tests needed.

  15/04/707

  Tried lowering tantalum to improve reception. No change. Maybe swap it entirely? Tungsten?

  27/04/707

  Shame on me. Answer was simple – MORE HAIR!!!

  29/04/707

  GH-0 v2 ready. But it’s too lightweight. Won’t survive in combat. Need to rethink.

  01/05/707

  Firepower. Crystals? NOT ENOUGH. Needs a cutting edge.

  11/05/707

  IDIOT!!!

  18/05/707

  LUMEN!

  Lumen? The mana crystal used for light? What are you talking about, Stanford? What did you do?

  15/07/707

  First Lumen coating applied. Insufficient for optical occlusion. Needs layering.

  01/10/707

  Third layer done. Still needs tuning, but promising.

  02/10/707

  GH-0 now ZK-0. Zero-Kinesis. Zee.

  14/10/707

  Final tests: static cloak – 4 hours, mobile cloak (low speed) – 1.5 hours, mobile cloak (high speed) – 9.4 seconds. Refresh time – 10 sec.

  20/10/707

  Adjusted settings one last time: Intercept -> protect -> retreat.

  21/10/707

  It’s out. Aetherprint: SKO-03543.

  These was his last words…

  Lumen coating? Did he plan to blind everyone with it? Like a flash grenade?

  And 21/10/707? That was less than a month ago as well.

  And the Aetherprint sequence? I assume it belonged to this Zee – or rather, the Aetheris Stanford used for its core – but what do I even do with it?

  If everything he wrote about the Aetherprint in this journal was real and not just the wishful thinking of a man slowly going mad, then just as Zee could track Thea’s Aetherprint, my COG should be able to track Zee with this sequence.

  That had to be why Stanford wrote it. There’s no way he just released this mechanical beast he worked almost a year on to find his daughter and didn’t want to track it. Wouldn’t he want to know where it was? If it was still functional? Wouldn’t he be curious to learn where they held Thea all this time?

  Of course he would.

  The sequence could be used for tracking. I was sure of it. Just like House Civics. I just needed to find a way to sync it with my COG.

  But how?

  As I tried to piece together this crucial information, a distant alarm blared through the streets. The phonotubes outside crackled to life, groaning with static before a message rang out:

  “Attention all citizens of Skyhaven. Due to an emergent security threat, all individuals are to remain indoors until further notice. This is a high-level directive issued by House Security. Unauthorized movement will be treated as obstruction. Repeat: remain indoors. An armed insurgent faction had launched an assault on Skyhaven. Your cooperation ensures your safety.”

  So…while Valdemar was attacking the Divine, he sent his Libra to attack the rest of Skyhaven…?

  A sequence of loud explosions in the distance were enough to answer my question.