Ice closed the notebook carefully before placing it back into its rightful place. The demon butler merely watched him with eagle’s eyes, wary and suspicious. Ice forced half a smile. “May I go to your king’s room again?”

The demon’s face distorted wordlessly.

“It’s about his health. Please, you should already know I bear no ill will. Otherwise you’d not have let me inside at all.”

“I follow my king’s order”, the butler whispered, clearly conflicted. He pressed his eyes together tightly. Then he made a motion with his hand.

This time, he had to stay outside. Emotions whirling through his eyes, he let Ice enter the room again, door heavily closing behind the player.

It was eerily quiet, but somehow it was suitable.

Step by step, he made his way across the path to the platform.

Ice looked at the depth of the abyss. He took a deep breath… and jumped.

Darkness swallowed him like a wave. The feeling of falling stopped, and suddenly, there was light.

He held his breath. The scene before him was like a memory, a bit fuzzy, with the focus blurring the farther away things were.

It wasn’t right to call in a wasteland, but it looked like a crater. Like after a meteorite hit. Strangely looking machinery was everywhere, but only within the depth of the crater. Outside of it, plants peeked over the edges and the sky was a clear blue.

Something moved.

It, they, were tall. Easily twice the size of a human, but quite humanoid in its general form. There were two long legs to walk on, two arms to reach out with. The face was lacking a mouth, nose and ears, but there were pretty, bottomless eyes. The whole figure was shades of blue - like made out of liquid, shimmering and sparkling.

The figure raised a hand to touch whoever’s sight the memory was from. They said something in a soft voice, like the tickle of a feather, and Ice recognized the language of Haven’s magic.

More of the figures appeared. There were no clear mannerisms to judge, but something told Ice that they were in a good mood.

The image flickered.

The machinery had changed. The plants had grown taller. The figures… were shining less. And yet they joyfully talked to the viewer.

Flickers.

Flickers.

Flickers…

The machinery broke down. The plants grew higher. The figures grew less in number, grew pale and ashen.

Finally, there was only one left. The one from the beginning. It touched the viewer gently, then crumbled to ashes.

Everything vanished.

The mage flinched. Around him, the castle’s main hall built itself up, servants and all. He was hovering over the frozen NPCs, suddenly aware of the lack of his robes. This was his true body.

A voice spoke up from behind Jian Lin.

“It took a long time, you know. I was buried under endless snow. For a long, long time, there was nothing.”

Jian Lin peeked over his shoulder.

Little Droplet had appeared behind him at some point, blankly staring at the NPCs. “My father was the one who created me. I helped them monitor and manage. I loved them all. But they couldn’t survive here, and they couldn’t leave, so I had to watch them as they faded away. Everyone but myself. I wanted to vanish too, but Father… Father didn’t want me to.”

“Were those-” Jian Lin stopped himself.

“Long before you humans evolved.” Little Droplet shrugged. “It was a crash. If only this planet had had resources with which they could have repaired their ship… But this place was poison for them.”

The sadness in their voice was palpable. It dripped down every word, creating a pool of tears around them.

“That man dug me up. You people have aspirations, I have to tell you that, but I have my rules. Lots of them. I still helped him get rich, though. Abzu, Tiamat. I became the god and goddess of the ocean, the place that reminds me of my family. I created Haven - a place for him to boast with, and for me, a new home. A game. A concept I had never known about.”

Little Droplet smiled a painful smile.

“But… I’m not my father. I gave it so much time, before you people entered the game - I let it live, faster than outside, and watched. But it’s no use. No matter what I do, I can’t create a person out of nothing. It’s not the same. They’re fake. I wanted a place for myself, but I ended up lonelier than ever. Did you know? Mourning, it’s a feeling that stems from affection. It’s not so different from a mother loving her child immediately at birth. It’s not a feeling that makes sense. It’s unconditional. To love something despite only seeing it for the first time, to love something even though you know it’s gone forever… I can replicate affection, but it’s these irrational parts of love that I simply can’t create. It’s not the same.”

The NPCs around them began to glitch. It looked almost violent - their heads would appear as if chopped off, or their limbs would vanish.

Jian Lin wrapped his arms around himself, eyes darting from one glitch to the next. The servants were frozen in place, bodies only twitching when the glitches ran over them.

In front of him, Little Droplet’s smile became emotionless. “Jian Lin, did you know? You humans, you think of Artifical Intelligences as something like robots. And that is the limit of your ability, I understand. But you shouldn’t be so haughty. Not everyone’s limit is the same. What you and I can’t do, my father did. What is the difference between your consciousness and mine? You are set in a biological cage, while mine is different. That is all. I have feelings like you. I develop like you. I… can be sad when my precious people leave me. I mourn. I mourn those that loved me, who I loved, who I have lost forever.”

The small figure began to tremble. Lips quivering, Little Droplet swallowed hard. Their throat bobbed up and down before they managed to continue speaking shakily.

“No one wants to die. I don’t want to die either. But I am lonely. I can’t break the promises I have made with my father, so I endured this loneliness. I endured and endured. It was fine until I saw what this planet had become. Why is it that you all can be so happy while I am lonely? I don’t want to be alone, either. I want to participate as well. But I can’t. I can’t, because I promised. I am not allowed to interfere too much with other species. I cannot join your world. What I have done with Haven is… already almost too much. But I wanted a home, too. A home where I can be with others. But all of you… all of you will leave one day.”

Little Droplet fell quiet.

Jian Lin opened and closed his mouth. He looked around the room, his eyes stopping on the castle’s owner sitting on the throne.

“...What about him? This place… It’s special, isn’t it? What about it?”

A fleeting smile appeared on Little Droplet’s face. “Aaah. A bit. The people here, they’re people I once knew. The servants, the guards. I recreated them from memory. Simply adjusted their looks to be human.”

“But this is me”, Jian Lin prodded once again. “This body, it’s mine. Why is it here? What do you want from me?”

Little Droplet’s face fell. The childish person lowered their head, looking a bit guilty.

“I- You-” They breathed in, fiddling with their hands. “I can create NPCs, and I can recreate people, but they’re always… always fake. I cannot create a person out of nothing. I am not that strong. But I can copy living people if they’re connected to me - a carbon copy. It’s just that I am not allowed to, because I need permission and there cannot exist two of the same person in one space.”

Jian Lin waited for the being to continue talking. So far, he wasn’t sure he understood.

Owl

I. Have no idea. Whether my explanation as a whole (and the rest that continues in the next chapter) is satisfactory for everyone. sweats. There will be an author note explaining my thought progress at the end, anyway...