Bob Rife in the style of Félicien Rops, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Chapter 6: Marking time

  Simulations headquarters, Mikla metropolitan area, Confluence dimension

  Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)

  As if the upswing in mass psychosis and turn towards authoritarianism was not enough, Bob received a report indicating another momentous development in Erd. The Erd author had started writing another Confluence book.

  He was writing the first chapter, which seemed to be some sort of crime story. Bob had the feeling it would soon go somewhere strange. The Erd author was under constant surveillance, but none of the Diviners watching him had detected any outside interference. Or inside interference for that matter.

  Ironically, given the obsessive interest in this author’s work among Confluence citizens, the people in Erd had largely ignored it. There was no one pushing for a second volume, barely anyone even aware of the first. The Erd author seemed to write it just for himself – to while away the time, perhaps, or as a form of therapy, as some Life Magic specialists insisted, or maybe just because he could. Or, Bob suspected, because someone had commissioned it. The High Renegade was known to be mischievous.

  The Erd author was proceeding slowly, mostly because time in the Erd simulation moved at a somewhat slower pace than it did in the Confluence. Of course, the Erd sims were not aware of this – for them, time advanced the only way it could, which is to say second by second. They did not have any point of reference with which to compare. Seen from the Confluence, however, the movement of time in Erd, as in any other simulation, fluctuated in accordance with the amount of magical energy Confluence citizens invested in the simulation. Erd was privileged in this regard, because the huge interest in the place meant that many people wanted to contribute to its development. For some years now, therefore, time had been advancing much more quickly in Erd than in the other simulations.

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  Might this be the reason for its instability? Bob had mulled it over but could not really see that it might be so. None of the Erd sims had the ability to perceive the speed with which time moved inside their simulation. There was no way in which they could be aware of, or be in any way affected by, the fact that one second for them might take anything from two Confluence seconds – which was roughly the current pace – to ten Confluence minutes, which was the pace of the slowest full-scale simulation operated by Confluence Diviners. It took a certain amount of magical energy to process the Erd sim a certain amount of time, but this should not matter to anyone inside the simulation. People were generally unaffected by events occurring outside of their frame of reference.

  Bob had never heard of any philosopher or dimensional theoretician who said otherwise. He had discussed the issue with all sorts of people, and not a single individual among them thought he should be careful about allowing the Erd simulation to proceed with whatever energy Confluence citizens were willing to invest in it.

  At any rate, the Erd author’s new book presented him with a dilemma. If he went public with this, it would generate enormous interest. Bob was not sure this would be appropriate for the given moment in time, as Erd seemed to be going through a rather delicate stage in its development, and the Diviners maintaining the place already had their hands full. Dealing with billions of curious citizens who wanted to see what was happening would be overwhelming.

  Of course, he also could not keep the Erd author’s second Confluence book a secret. So, he did the only thing he could do: he sent a report up the Diviner hierarchy, warning them that his people were not ready for an influx of tourists.

  Erd author in the style of Egon Schiele, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.