UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

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Ethan nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Do they execute the ruler, or do they have to keep them alive?" He probably had too many questions.

~~
"Oh, I know that feeling," Vestia said sympathetically. She watched Amari snooze. Aww.

Marcus would be leaning on the wall across the door, "Did he speak...?" He would ask noting Asher shut the door behind him.

Starr hugged Armin in return, happy with what she felt going on out there. "Yes, it is wonderful news." She agreed.

Mourn sighed. "stupid code. No given you permission." He could probably fix that, if he could remove the laws he could give an android admin privilages damnit! grrr.
"I fix, we fix."

---

Armin slowly realised he was probably overstepping a boundry with such physical contact and gently eased away from Starr. "Are they safe?"

Starr smiled up at him then nodded "They are, they are meeting up together now."

Armin clapped his hands together. "Such wonderful news, a marvelous start to your campaign! How.. how many?"

Asher considered his answer. He knew Amari wouldn't want him to tell Marcus, but at the same time, Marcus did know anyway. Hmm. He gestured for Marcus to follow him down the hall a ways, to make sure Amari couldn't hear him. "You were right about him thinking of you as his master," he said sadly. It was basically an answer to the question.

~~
Moriah hugged Levi. She was so glad he was alive, she liked him.

Levi smiled at Moriah, then nodded to Mourn. "I suppose that makes sense. I never thought of it before though, it's such a silly thing to go wrong." He shook his head. MegaBrainTech code was dumb that way.

Granting an android admin privileges over their system would be tricky, it was yet another thing that they weren't designed to do. But Mourn was smart, and no doubt he'd figure out a way to get the stupid code to be able to edit itself using some variation of the technique he used to break into the androids' code in the first place.

Marcus would follow, and the words confirmed his fears. He looked liked someone stabbed him straight in the back, the oldee Arran took a shaky breath, "Well... That confirms it at least..." marcus was old enough to know shedding tears won't fix the issue, he closed his eyes for a few moments to compose himself before saying more. "He won't adapt to think otherwise will he?"

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Armin clapped his hands together. "Such wonderful news, a marvelous start to your campaign! How.. how many?"

"Fifty adults and twenty eggs" Starr said then frowned softly as she sat again "They must have sent the kids to a different place."

"I don't know if he will or not. Being around people who don't hurt him is all so new to him, after all. You've known him what, a few weeks so far?" Asher sighed. "He's smart, that's pretty clear, so maybe in time he'll be able to trust you. But it's just too soon to tell." He looked up at Marcus, "I'm sorry. I can only imagine how much that must hurt for you."

He weakly chuckled, "In many ways it a fitting punishment for what I have done in my life... I just don't think it one I could bear long term.." Marcus said truthfully, it was clear he didn't believe that his relationship with Amari would change.

Asher shook his head. "It's not fair. What you did or didn't do, it doesn't change the fact that you've tried to help Amari as much as you can. It's not your fault he's learned to fear the person who bought him." He looked at the ground, frowning. He so wanted to offer to keep Amari safe for Marcus, but he just couldn't. Not until he'd talked it over with some of the others, anyway.

Mourn nodded. "we got new problem, sure I can fix." he tapped away at the keyboard.

---

Armin lowered his head. "We shall find them too, this is a great first step, one of many successes I pray."

Starr nodded and smiled a little "Yes, we will, hopefully before it's too late to help them adjust."

Levi seemed more curious than worried, he was an old android, death was a concept he'd come to terms with a long time ago. His thought process logs scrolled along as he watched Mourn work and tried to understand what he was doing.

It'd take some time to get him admin access to his brain, but eventually Mourn would figure out a solution which seemed promising.

Kooshie wrote:Asher shook his head. "It's not fair. What you did or didn't do, it doesn't change the fact that you've tried to help Amari as much as you can. It's not your fault he's learned to fear the person who bought him." He looked at the ground, frowning. He so wanted to offer to keep Amari safe for Marcus, but he just couldn't. Not until he'd talked it over with some of the others, anyway.

"life is unfortunately extremely unfair." Marcus remarked with a sigh. "I'm going to assume he probably doesn't want me in there correct?"

Mourn made "ahah" noises and tried this new attempt. "We try again yes?"

Asher nodded. "I suggested that he might prefer to be alone, and he liked the idea. We can set you up with separate rooms, but still near each other." He looked apologetic. This had to hurt.

~~
"Yes, let's try again." Levi started over, selecting the files, and then deleting them. This time, instead of crashing, the files started deleting correctly, as evidenced by the rolling list of file names traveling up Mourn's monitor. So far, so good.

"T-thats fine, I don't sleep much anyway so I probably kept him up..." he knew the truth but rather enjoyed the lie instead.

Asher nodded. "Vestia will get a nice room set up for you in short order. Your son will be all right, Marcus. You have to believe in that."

"It hard to believe in a story when you know reality." Marcus sighed, "Thank you none the less..."

Mourn watched all this carefully, nodding at each deletion.

Asher nodded again. "I'm sorry. I'll be back later for the next round of checkups. Until then, take care." He started off down the hall.

~~
Eventually it finished deleting files, and started updating the index, adjusting it to match the new information. This part went faster. Finally it finished.

"I think it worked this time," Levi said.

Moriah smiled. "How much more space do you have now?"

Levi tried to calculate. "Maybe something like ten years? I'm not sure yet, it's hard to tell."

Marcus nodded, moving to his new room he would sit quietly to listem to his audiobook.

----

Amari would sleep peacefully for once.

Mourn cheered. "I do it! Robot better!" He grinned. "we wait, see if passive deletion work too!"

"Guess we'll be having a slumber party tonight so you guys can make sure I'm okay, huh?" Levi asked Moriah with a smile.

Moriah nodded. "We'll watch you like hawks."

Levi looked amused. "I'm sure they will. Thanks Mourn. Guess I'll check in with you tomorrow?"

~~

Asher headed off the floor, back toward the main level.

"I know what you're thinking," Vestia said.

"He seems so lonely. But I can't just go and ask to take someone's son away," Asher said, "it isn't right. Not to mention that our crew don't want Amari here."

Vestia coughed softly. "Well actually, Marcus asked me something today which might make that part a lot easier..."

"He asked you to take care of Amari?" Asher asked.

"He suggested that maybe we could, yes," Vestia said. "I told him something about how we were concerned about his feral instincts and the safety of the crew. He knew we weren't likely to accept."

Asher sighed. "The feral instincts seem like less of an issue now I've had a conversation with Amari, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." Vestia's lights turned grayish. "Poor kid, he needs a home."

"If I wanted to convince the crew, where do you think I should start? With Starr, maybe?" Asher asked softly.

"She's kind of distracted right now..." Vestia considered for a moment, "Yeah, go talk to her. You should talk to her anyway. She's got some exciting news."

Asher blinked at that odd statement, but wheeled his way to find Starr.

Starr was now thinking of the missing kids and where they might be, since they were away from the parents that had just been freed.

Mourn nodded. "You be fine robot, I good at code." he patted Levi on the head.

---

Armin was delighted by the news, but also wary of getting too excited when so many dragons were still in chains. There was still much work to do.
He rested a hand gently on Starr's shoulder.