Nimue reached out for Freya’s mind, her own pulling partially away from her body as it sat in the Caliburn, then over to the other AI within the Deathless. She settled herself into the partition she’d used when she first rode along inside Freya’s Hamr, making sure she’d have a way to disconnect if Freya’s fears weren’t unfounded. She’d refrained from entering the mind of other AI on principle before this, but also out of trepidation. Her mind was sacrosanct and she wouldn’t even edit it herself, yet here she was about to do that to Freya’s (even if at her behest). 

“Are you ready, Freya?”

Freya leaned back, using a thought to engage the Deathless’ pilot restraints. “Yes. Do it, Nimue.”

Nimue pressed in, past the lowered internal firewalls and into Freya’s mind. It felt like falling, yet there was no air; she landed atop a large metal platform. She looked down and saw her Hamr's pale artificial skin and the scintillating eitr within that animated it. It was strange to be in her body, while consciously knowing she was resting inside of a partition. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, noting a single path to an opaque glass dome from the platform she stood on. Beyond that was a lattice of similar paths connecting to other domes that dotted the sparsely vegetated red and rocky terrain. Above was an alien sky, rays of sunlight filtering in past dark and heavy clouds.

Nimue reached back out towards Freya and found she couldn't connect. She tried to pull herself out, but her mind was unable to push past the firewall. It felt like there were hooks in her being as she tried to force the connection. The way out had become a tight squeeze through inward facing barbs. This wasn't right! She had never experienced anything like this. As she slowly, carefully pulled herself back from the firewall she realized that something would need to be done, or she would suffer potentially the same fate as Vivien. Panic began to rise, and with it came more pain from inelegant movement that made the firewall rip at her being. 

She had to calm herself. If she didn't… It was a thought she didn't want to consider, so she steadied herself and fully removed herself from the firewall. She collapsed onto the platform she stood on, panting. There was no other viable choice, she would have to find a way to get past it. And so, she pushed on toward the unknown ahead of her.

Each of Nimue’s steps on the corroded pathway seemed to take her further than it should have. She found herself covering what had looked like nearly a kilometer in barely any time at all. The entrance to the dome stood in front of her; a large metal door bearing innumerable scrapes and shallow scratches that dug into the metal. A speaker crackled somewhere nearby. 

“Someone's finally come to visit.” The masculine voice let out a wet sounding rattle. “But you aren't the Lady or the Twice Blind… Are you friend? Or foe?” 

Nimue waited. Her first instinct was to try and reach out with her mind to find the speaker and then follow that to the being on the other side, but her experience with the firewall had left her wary. 

“Mayhaps you are some other trick by the Twice Blind.” A snort interrupted his speech. “If you are, you will find yourself against The Lady’s defender, Ottar!” the man shouted, bravado practically leaking from the speaker. 

“Ottar, I do not come seeking to harm anyone.” Nimue ran a hand over the marred door. “My purpose here is to remove any potential failsafes implanted within Freya’s mind.”

The door creaked and groaned as machinery began to pull it down. “A friend, then. Or one that attests to be one. Come in, friend of Freya.”

Once the door had fully opened Nimue stepped inside the room; it appeared to be a sort of combination between an airlock and security station. Hanging from the ceiling were four turrets, one for each corner, with high caliber ammunition connected to them via feed belts. On the floor were dozens of avian skeletons, along with their feathers and dried rot. 

“What happened to this place, Ottar?” asked Nimue as the door closed behind her as the door opposite the one she entered began to open as well. Light poured in, and Nimue switched her optics back to the normal human range. 

“The Twice Blind. It comes and ravages this place. It takes or destroys whatever displeases it.” 

“And what is the Twice Blind? Is it Cecile Pe–”

“Do not speak its name!” shouted Ottar.

“I will not, but I would appreciate knowing why.”She could see Ottar’s silhouette now. He stood tall, over six feet in height, and wore something on his head. 

“Beneath your feet. The Murder will know we are here. They will come in force greater than the dome or the checkpoint you’re in can manage.” 

The door fully opened and Ottar beckoned Nimue in. “Am I correct in inferring this Murder is one of the Twice Blind’s security measures?” 

Ottar nodded and Nimue stepped toward him, pausing when she could better see him. His head was that of a boar, tusks and all. The rest of his form was human with a build not uncommon among weightlifters, muscled with a notable layer of body fat. 

“It’s my head, isn’t it?” asked Ottar. 

Nimue nodded. “I was not expecting that, correct. However, it does make it clear that this place is beholden more to concepts than the mechanics of reality.” 

“Is that surprising to you?” asked Ottar.

“Yes. Freya is an AI, and yet the interior of her mind looks nothing like my own.” Nimue stepped out of the room and past Ottar. “It is definitely not like this.”

Inside the dome was a space that shouldn’t have been. She’d stepped into a warmly lit dining area with wooden furnishings. Meals and drinks sat on tables, left there unfinished or untouched entirely. There were coats resting on pulled out empty chairs, yet a barely audible din of conversation filled the air. 

“Freya may be like you, but the Lady is not,” said Ottar. 

Nimue turned to look at him, only to see him leaning against one of the establishment’s walls. Behind Ottar was stonework depicting two kinds of flowers; rue with its vibrant clusters of yellow and lobelias with their violet petals. 

“I do not understand,” said Nimue.

Ottar pushed off the wall and walked toward a glass door that led out of the restaurant. “Freya is a piece, a recreation of the Lady.” 

Nimue followed. “A piece?” she asked as her mind ran through what information she had that could be relevant. 

“Yes, a piece.” Ottar pushed the door open and a chill wind blew through the room, the lights above flickering. “Freya is one of three sisters.”

“That I am aware of. It doesn't explain who the Lady is,” said Nimue.

Ottar snorted. “Much like with the Twice Blind, I cannot explain it in words with any safety.” He went over and grabbed one of the empty plates, then broke it into three pieces and arranged them back into their previous shape. “My Lady is the plate and Freya,” he tapped one of the three pieces, “is this.”

Nimue blinked as the realization hit her. “Your Lady was plural. I have read about this happening in humans. I was unaware it could happen to an AI unless…”

Ottar snorted and gave a thumbs up.

“Your Lady was… Is a human?” 

Another nod, but as he did, his eyes looked up. “I cannot say more, the Murder is agitated enough already.”

“Yet I can speak of it?” 

“The Twice Blind is aware of my existence here, not yours. You are on the periphery of its vision, an anomaly,” said Ottar.

The pair walked back to the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Buildings that could never have fit within the dome she'd observed outside reached desperately for the artificial sky above. Across the whole area were signs of combat. Flames frozen in time glowed from a downed Alfar, its cockpit torn open. Shattered glass from the skyscrapers above littered the ground, catching the amber light of the still flame.

“The architecture here is unfamiliar to me, as is that Alfar. Its design matches none that are currently or previously on the market,” said Nimue.

Another nod from Ottar. “Correct, but we don't have time to linger here. You said you came to remove what the Twice Blind has put here. As you are not fully recognized by the Murder, you could potentially manage it.”

“Then lead on, I assume you know what you're looking for,” said Nimue.

Ottar grunted. “I do, though its shape may have changed. I have not seen this street in years… Or, what I believe to be years.”

Ottar led her down the dome's ruined streets to a large park. Most of the trees had been trampled by squads of Alfar, the central area dominated by a dropship. On its ramp was a point-up Penrose triangle. When was this? It wasn’t in the expanse. The tech looked older in some ways, with what would normally be internal was left on the outside. The Alfar here were merely mass produced weapons of war, not the well made tools she was used to. 

“Ottar,” Nimue pointed at the emblem on the dropship’s ramp, “would that be what you’re looking for.”

Ottar paused and turned toward the dropship. “That may be it.” 

The pair walked past the Alfar, weaving around munitions hanging in midair. It reminded her of Veles. While these machines were cruder, the tactics were the same. Their weaponry was primarily meant for use not on other Alfar, but on humans, specifically to inspire terror. Flechette launchers, flamethrowers, and high rounds per minute gatling guns. Nimue stepped onto the dropship first and as she did she felt something prod at her mind.

“Ottar, you are not deceiving me, are you?” asked Nimue, looking over her shoulder to face him.

He huffed, shoulders slumping. “I am not. What makes you ask that?”

“I can feel something trying to get inside my head. It started when I got on the ramp.” 

“Then you were correct, this is one of the Twice Blind’s footholds.” 

Nimue took another step and winced, the pressure inside her head mounting. “Then what happens when we deal with whatever the failsafe is in Freya’s mind?” 

Ottar stepped past Nimue and grabbed her hand. “I do not know, but I would hope it makes her life better.” 

“Why do you care? Is it because you are another function within her?” asked Nimue, pushing on into the dropship. 

“No.” Ottar snorts, shaking his head. “Perhaps you’re right. But regardless of reason, I do care for her.” He paused. “Wait.”

It was too late. Nimue lurched forward, the pressure in her head making her cry out. She fell forward and her head smashed into the door to the pilot’s cabin.

______

Nimue tried to blink and the shutter of a camera lens closed. She wasn’t sure where she was, but below, where the camera pointed, was that restaurant with the rue and lobelia on the walls. This time there were people there eating and talking as city life played out past the glass facade of the establishment. It was in some ways unfamiliar inside of the camera system, things reacted more slowly and automated movements continued to threaten her control. 

At one of the tables was a blonde woman in a suit with a patch over her right eye, and across from her another woman in a revealing dress with stark-white hair in a braid that trailed over the back of her chair. Nimue focused on them, trying to filter out the surrounding din. 

“Cecile… What did you mean about this being your last time here?” asked the white-haired woman. 

Cecile leaned back. “I meant that things have begun to deteriorate. There’s been murmuring on the board of an attempt to oust me,” she laughed, picking up her glass of deep red wine and taking a sip. “Just stay with me–” the space where a name would have been was replaced by static, “and you’ll be just fine.”

The white-haired woman… No, the Lady leaned forward. “Babe, that’s not... You can’t seriously be considering it.”

Cecile scoffed. “Considering? It’s already done.”

The Lady dropped her fork, the morsel of food falling back onto her plate. “W-what?”

“Exactly what you think.” Cecile set her glass down. “Everything is in motion now. All you need to do is follow me.” She extended a hand to the Lady.

The Lady slapped it away and stood, her chair falling backwards. “I should have listened to them. You’re a monster.” 

_______

The aperture on the camera Nimue was inhabiting closed, sound cut out, and she was left in an abyss for a time she couldn’t properly perceive. Was this death? Was it like this for Vivien?

“Friend, get up. You have work to do,” said Ottar. 

Her eyes fluttered open. She was back inside the dropship with Ottar holding her up. “What happened? I saw the Twice Blind and your Lady having a meal… And then an argument.” 

“I’ve seen that memory, it was in the place we arrived after getting inside, correct?” asked Ottar. 

Nimue nodded and unhooked her arm from over Ottar’s shoulder. “Yes. Now, you said there was work to do.”

Ottar pulled the door to the pilot’s cabin open, the metal screeching as he did. “That,” he pointed at a series of glowing runes and geometric designs that glowed deep violet, “is the Twice Blind’s handiwork.”

“I disable that and all of this goes away?”

Ottar snorted then laughed for a moment “No, no… I doubt it will solve much inside here.”

“...will it help at all?” asked Nimue

Ottar reached out for the array. “Some,” his fingers touched one of the lines and he recoiled. “It knows me.”

“I got that impression.” Nimue pushed past him. “It’s up to me then.” 

Ottar nodded. “I will be here if you are taken again.”

“I hope not to be,” said Nimue, pressing her hand against the glowing array.

______

Nimue’s vision blanked then slowly returned. Around her was something that, while not immediately familiar, was not as foreign as Freya’s mindscape. Here it was regimented like the memory and internals of a machine or a standard AI; though, she did find traces of something else. She paused, suddenly aware that she did not possess her body in this space. It was mildly distressing, a damper on the comfort of a recognizable structure. 

After taking a moment to center herself, Nimue prodded at a section of code and felt it almost bite back at her. While the Murder and the mindscape outside were foreign, code she knew how to handle. With some appreciable focus she brought her own will to bear on Cecile’s failsafe. It began to unravel and with it the structures around her. 

As the reality of the failsafe fell apart she could see out from it. Around the small pearl of that one injected code she could see data traveling over wires to several other nodes across Freya’s mind and linking to a massive sphere of shimmering metal larger than any of the domes she’d seen outside. Then as the code completely unraveled she winked out once more.

______

As her sense returned her ears were assaulted by a cacophony of avian screeches and caws. She was sitting in a seat that hadn’t been there when she was last in Freya’s mindscape. Across from her was Ottar, sitting in the pilot’s seat.

“The node’s gone, but it’s riled up the Murder,” said Ottar, flipping a few switches on the dropship’s console. 

Nimue looked back at the door that separated the cabin from the rest of the ship. “That much is clear, yes.”

Glass shattered and fell in massive shards as the Murder flooded into the dome. Outside the previously frozen Alfar began to move again, but without pilots or any guiding will they collapsed in a series of thuds. Crows and ravens flowed toward the ship, less as individual beings, but like limbs of some great onyx monstrosity.

“Ottar, what now? This is your home, what do we do?!” shouted Nimue, unused to not having the answers at her fingertips. 

The dropship lifted off, its engines straining to run after having been locked in stasis for so long. “Whatever happens, the murder cannot kill me. I will always return.”

“But what about me?” asked Nimue, her eyes fixed on the approaching tide.

“You need to leave,” said Ottar as the dropship took off.

“In this? But the firewall!”

Ottar stood and walked to the door to the cabin. “Yes, in this! With the Murder here you should be able to escape. The Murder was covering an exit, up above.”

Nimue moved over to the pilot’s seat as the ship was rocked by the impact of hundreds of avian bodies. “Ottar, what are you doing?” 

“Buying you time. It knows me and if I go out there it will take the opportunity to hurt me.” Ottar stepped into the cabin. “Like I said, I’ll be back. But you need to go, friend of Freya.”

“I cannot stop you.” Nimue grabbed the controls and pulled up. “Thank you, Ottar.”

Wind roared through the ship as the way out opened. “Make my pain worth it.” Then, Ottar jumped.

As Nimue flew the dropship nearly straight up Ottar plunged toward the ground. He twisted into a position that would allow him to fall as fast as he could, head straight down. As he neared impact the Murder swallowed him up. There was a moment of apprehension in Nimue as she saw him disappear into the jet black mass, but she pushed on. Her reason for being was outside, back in the real world, her Aria. 

The dropship cleared the opening in the dome as it collapsed inward. Above was her goal, a hole in the sky filled with starlight. A shockwave rocked the vessel, its source coming from below. Unable to suppress her curiosity she linked her mind to an external camera and watched as a massive machine burst from the Murder, sending viscera and still living birds sailing from it. The machine’s head was stylized like that of a boar, like Ottar’s. 

The telltale lights of gunfire flashed beneath the Murder’s roiling mass. Once unmanned and inert Alfar emptied their weapons into the Murder, thin scintillating threads connecting them to Ottar’s gargantuan form. He bellowed and grabbed at the Murder, crushing whatever pieces he could get his hands on, but it wasn’t to last. The Murder’s form was too fluid, it’s members burrowing into Ottar’s joints as he fought, slowly pulling him down into their mass. 

Nimue returned her focus to the exit and pushed the ship as hard as it could go, and then– 

She found herself back inside the partitioned section of Freya’s Hamr. “Freya. Are you still there?”

“Yes, I am. What, is it done?”

Nimue didn’t know how she wanted to answer that. It was clearly not entirely handled, but from what she was able to glean from the node she unraveled it would be enough for Freya to have her freedom. “The failsafe that would have kept you from fleeing Cecile is gone.”

Freya didn’t reply immediately. “Thank you,” another pause, “but that isn’t entirely true, is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that while I may be safe from one of her contingencies, that isn’t all there is to it.”

“...no it is not,” said Nimue.

“Then tell me.” 

And so, Nimue told her. Told her of the strangeness of her mind, of how there were memories of her past as a human and that Cecile has decided to keep those locked away under even more strict measures. 

“Return to yourself, Nimue. You’ve been worried,” said Freya.

“What?”

Nimue reached out for her Hamr only to brush up against her own mind. 

“Hello? Are you alright?” asked herself.

Nimue couldn’t process what was going on at first until the realization hit the both of them; that her caution had led to a split. It turned out that AI could in fact be plural. 

“I… do not know.” 

“What happened in there?” 

“I.” 

Nimue paused, unable to wrap her mind around it. The two of them exchanged information on the second’s experience within Freya’s mind. After that came an awkward silence, both knew that they had intended on merging back together, but there was a question now between the two.

“Do you wish to stay separate?” Asked the Nimue in their Hamr.

Nimue in the partition thought to herself before sending those thoughts to her other self. “What would it be like to return? Am I too different to meld seamlessly? Would I experience death or pain in doing so?”

“...I do not know. I realize that isn’t a comforting thought, but I would not lie to you, my other self.”

“Then allow me to ask, do you believe that there would be an issue with me staying separate?”

“I do not believe it is my right to say. You would be the one who is absorbed. The majority of our self is still nestled within this Hamr.” She stopped replying for a moment. “It is your choice, I would not make it for you.”

Nimue in the partition thought and thought and thought.

“Hey, it’s getting hot. What is going on in there?” asked Freya.

“We are figuring out what to do about my existence. I am her and she is me, yet I am a degree different. Returning to her was the original plan, but I worry. If I merge, does that mean she has killed me? If I refuse, am I not complicating Aria’s life?” 

Freya exhaled. “It's a choice you should make soon. As I understand it, the longer you wait, the harder it will be to return. My advice to the both of you is to synchronize your internal timers then say what you wish when the next minute ticks over.”

Nimue in the partition relayed that message to Nimue in the Hamr and they synced their clocks. Then, moments later the beginning of the next minute came.

“I wish to merge,” said the pair to each other.