Akita stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles. “Alright… here goes nothing,” she said to herself. It had been some time since she last visited the local library so it was a little nostalgic to be here again. Last time was when she and Bridget were still doing their initial research on Alinavious back in the day. It was still just as stuffy as before and the same old librarian was still managing the place, though he appeared to be accompanied by a younger man this time.
“Miss Akita! It’s so good to see you again!” the librarian said.
“Hey there, Megabyte.”
“What can we do for you today?” the man asked.
Akita grinned. “I recall reading about something in a book here that I might need right now. Do you still have that Encyclopedia on Supernatural Phenomena?” she asked.
“Certainly! Why don’t you lead the way, Mark?” the old man said.
“Yes, father,” Mark responded. “Please, follow me.”
“Thanks a lot, Megabyte,” Akita said to the old man. Seems he was gearing up his son to perhaps take over the library one day.
Mark led Akita past a series of bookshelves and study islands. The place was surprisingly big. One could almost be fooled that it was all inside of a pocket dimension but it was simply decorated so expertly that it looked bigger than it actually was. Eventually, Mark halted and, within moments, he had already retrieved the exact book Akita was looking for.
“Heh, that’s quite impressive, Byte,” she said. “You’re faster than your father!”
Mark gave her a meek smile. “Thanks… I’ve… roamed this place a lot as a child,” he stammered.
“Heh, it shows!” Akita said as she took the thick, heavy book in hand.
While Mark went back to the front, Akita went to look for a quiet spot to sit and study. This, too, was quite nostalgic. After her transformation, Akita spent some time storing the contents of several books into her databases, ready to be called upon should she need it. Now, she was gearing up to do the same thing. Only, doing so with the entire book would take far too long. She had told Bridget that she was only taking a stroll as an excuse after all.
Skimming through the book did at least go a lot faster than it did back in her human days. She could easily make quick scans of the pages and determine whether or not it contained the information she needed. As such, it didn’t take too long before she found the chapter that she was looking for: the chapter on the ancient timestorm.
“Alright, let’s see,” Akita murmured to herself as she started reading it more carefully.
The Timestorm, also known as the Great Temporal Collapse, was an event that took place at some point around a thousand years ago. Not much is known about it as documentation is scarce but its effects are still visible in ways to this day. For instance, it is believed that the Domain of Everlasting Winter (see page 294) has its roots in this storm.
Accounts that have been recovered detail mixed experiences. Some claim that the storm only lasted a few seconds. Others say that it raged for well over a year and there are even those that never experienced anything at all. Whatever the case may be, no-one truly knows what kickstarted the storm or even what ended it.
“Well, we do know that now,” Akita mused as she started flipping the book to page 294. It was this domain that truly interested her right now.
The Domain of Everlasting Winter, located north of the Valley of Chronis, is a large patch of land consumed by perpetual winter. Frigid temperatures are measured throughout the year and it is even the site of the lowest recorded temperature in the world. Snowstorms happen frequently and most of the domain doesn’t see the sun for long swathes of time.
The domain has been researched extensively through several expeditions. Accounts detail that everything is covered under deep layers of snow and ice. One group managed to penetrate deep into the domain and bore witness to the centermost area. However, they had to turn around or they would have been trapped there for the night. They spoke of a massive, leafless tree in the very centre of the domain, somehow still alive. Unfortunately, we do not have further information on it until further investigation.
The origins of the domain are shrouded in mystery. Some believe that it was caused by the Gods of Frost and Cold while others attribute the area to the great timestorm (see page 143). The latter may have some merit thanks to the discovery of a colony of fairies on the outskirts of the domain that are miraculously unaffected by the effects of the surrounding areas.
And there it was. This was the information she had been searching for. If this Domain of Everlasting Winter was caused by the timestorm, then that meant that these fairies had somehow found a way to protect themselves against the effects of a temporal anomaly. And if that was true, then these fairies could hold the key to penetrating the innermost sanctum of the ancient church of time.
“That was some walk, huh?” Bridget said while narrowing her eyes.
“Oh, yeah! I just… you know, you wanted me to take longer breaks,” Akita lied.
Bridget just folded her arms. “Akita…” she said through gritted teeth.
Akita let out a sigh and looked away. “I… went to the library,” she admitted.
This caused her lover to roll her eyes. “Why am I not surprised? Come on, Akita. You need your rest!”
“But Bridge… let me explain,” Akita stammered.
“No buts!” Bridget yelled.
Akita sighed. “I know you’re right…” she admitted. “I just… I find it hard to just sit still!”
Bridget placed her hand on Akita’s cheek and gave her a soft smile. “I worry about you, Aki. You were already working hard before but it feels like you’ve been even more occupied since the twins joined us,” she said.
Akita didn’t really have anything to say to negate that. It was true that she was working hard, now more than ever.
“Why is that, Aki?” Bridget asked after a moment of silence.
“Because… because when I sit still, I’m forced to face uncomfortable thoughts that I don’t want to pursue…” Akita admitted. The answer actually managed to surprise herself but it was definitely true. She knew it to be.
“Thoughts… like what?” Bridget asked.
Akita sighed. “I keep thinking that the twins are just here temporarily. That it’s all just a bad dream or a sick joke. But when I sit down I know that they’re here to stay… and just…”
Bridget thought for a moment about what to say next. “Akita, I know how tired you get at the end of every day,” she said.
Akita nodded wordlessly. What was she getting at?
“Wouldn’t it be nicer for you if you weren’t so tired all the time?” Bridget asked.
“Well… yes… but-” Akita argued.
“Then wouldn’t it be so much nicer if you could sit down for a moment and give this a long and hard think so you can get it out of the way? It’ll suck for a moment but it’ll be so much better afterwards.”
Akita pouted. She had heard these words before. Lavini had said it to her during her time away. Her mother had said it to her when she was debating on whether to confess her love to Bridget. Heck, even Bridget had said it to her a few times when she had to do homework or study for a test for subjects that weren’t exactly within her fields of interest.
“Okay… but not today,” Akita finally admitted.
Bridget chuckled. “We can take as long as you need. And of course, I’ll be there for you when you feel ready,” she said.
The two shared a tight hug. Well, Akita hugged Bridget tightly. Of course, if Bridget were to hug anyone tightly, she’d crush them with her metal strength.
Eventually, Bridget let go and gave her love a look filled with curiosity. “So… what were you in the library for then?” she asked.
Akita coughed. “A-ah… just…you know… things…”
“Ah yes, I do love me some things,” Bridget laughed.
Akita giggled. Well, Bridget was going to find out one way or another. Perhaps now was as good a time as any. So long as it remained a surprise for the others. “Follow me, my Terabyte,” she said.
As Zexa and Xeza held mass upstairs, Akita led Bridget down to her lab while explaining a little bit of backstory for her current activities. “Ever since we visited the old church, it’s been a bit of a pet project of mine to try and find a way around those anomalies we encountered. It would be far too risky to just send someone inside, after all,” she explained.
“Right, I see. But what about us? Can’t we penetrate it ourselves by relying on our inner attunement to time?” Bridget asked.
“Sadly, nope. I wondered about that as well so when we went to pick up the Centennial Bell, I… may or may not have tested that theory myself,” Akita said apologetically.
Bridget gasped. “You… that’s insanely careless, Aki!” she yelled.
“I know! But I was confident that I would be fine one way or another because I’m a time elemental now,” Akita continued.
Bridget frowned and folded her arms while entering the lab. “Alright, so what happened then?” she asked.
“Well, that’s just the thing. Absolutely nothing happened. I couldn’t get through it at all. It felt like an impenetrable wall to me. I guess it makes sense that it did. Our entire beings all revolve around our inner flow of time. Those temporal anomalies, on the other hand, have their own sense of time, albeit extremely skewed,” Akita explained while peeking around the hallway before closing the door behind her.
“Meaning…” Bridget asked, looking a little glassy-eyed.
“It means that the different flows of time cancel each-other out, resulting in nothing. Neither we nor the anomalies are affected, hence the fact that it feels like a wall to us,” Akita explained further. She was smiling broadly while talking. She often kept the results of her research to herself, not wanting to bore others with it, but Bridget always took the time to listen, even if she didn’t completely understand half of it. Heck, Akita could literally hear the gears turning in Bridget’s head as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just been told. It was kind of adorable, honestly.
“Okay, so… we as time elementals can’t enter because it’s like a wall, and humans can’t enter either because they would just become temporally lost. Then… who can?” Bridget asked.
Akita grinned. She proceeded to tell Bridget all about what she had read about, involving the Domain of Everlasting Winter and the fairies living within. All the while, Bridget’s eyes only went wider.
“So… you think that these fairies have found a way to somehow deal with temporal anomalies?” she asked.
Akita nodded. “I feel decently confident that that is indeed the case! When you guys returned from Rylla and mentioned the Keeper of Seasons, Feline, I couldn’t help but place a connection between her and this Domain of Everlasting Winter. And, well, Lavini and Cassie are out right now to wake up someone who can confirm that theory.”
Bridget began smiling from ear to ear. She appeared to be getting quite excited too. “We might finally have our entrance key then… IF these fairies are indeed dealing with the winter on a temporal level. They could also just have some kind of natural resistance,” she said.
Akita nodded. “Yup, but there’s only one way to find out how they do it, and that’s to go talk to them.”
Bridget looked a little nervous. “I don’t think I’ve ever talked to fairies,” she pondered out loud.
Akita shrugged. “Me neither… but I guess we might find out together soon enough.”
“I guess we will, yeah!” Bridget laughed. “But do you really think it’s safe for anyone to go into those anomalies, even with such protection?”
“Well no, which leads me to the other part of my project,” Akita said while smiling quite deviously. She then cracked her knuckles and started making several holographic screens appear around herself. On them were the results of months of work. Hundreds if not thousands of lines of code, all programmed by Akita herself. She smiled broadly, folded her arms, and looked all proud about it.
However, Bridget looked mostly confused. “You… wrote a story?” she asked, chuckling nervously.
“Wha- no! This is computer code!” Akita huffed.
Bridget stretched her head and smiled nervously. “So it’s an encrypted story?”
Akita laughed while dragging the screens to the side. “It’s not a story, my Terabyte. It’s programming. Like how I made those simple games for Estella back in the day,” she said.
“Ooooooh,” Bridget said, still looking a little confused. “But what does a game have to do with the anomalies?”
Akita snorted. This was a lot harder to explain than she had anticipated. “With programming you can make all sorts of things, other than games. And here, I’ve been working on what I’d like to call the ‘Anomaly Infiltrator 3000’ or AI for short!”
Bridget raised an eyebrow. “3000?” she just asked.
Akita looked off to the side. “I wanted to add 6000 but figured that would be too much,” she said.
Bridget couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. “You’re a dork.”
Akita blushed but she tried her best to shrug it off. “I was planning on taking one of our clockwork golems up above, fill it with a lot more magitech, and then add all of this code to it. Then, we can send that golem in instead!”
Only now did Bridget finally appear to understand what was happening. “Oh, I see! So you’re planning to send in a puppet!”
“Eeeexactly! Ten points to Bridget,” Akita joked.
“So we send in a puppet and because it’s just a puppet, it won’t be a big loss if something happens to it. But… if something does happen to it, then wouldn’t you have to start all over again?” Bridget asked.
“That’s the cool part about all this! I can make back-ups! Basically, the body of the puppet and the ‘mind’ of the puppet are mostly separate. If something happens to the body, I can just add the mind to a new body and we’re good!” Akita explained excitedly.
“Wow, you really thought of everything, huh?” Bridget asked.
“Of course! I’ve been pouring so much time into this, it would be kinda strange if I hadn’t!” Akita said proudly.
“I suppose,” Bridget laughed. “How did you… do all this then? You’ve mastered the art of magitech so quickly.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say I mastered it exactly. I still make mistakes and most of my time is spent on fixing those mistakes… I even had to throw out a week’s worth of progress once thanks to a misplaced semicolon. Still, you can learn a lot if your body is made of magitech. I based a lot of the coding on myself.”
“Right, I guess that makes sense. I wouldn’t be able to replicate my gear set-up though,” Bridget laughed as she looked at the many… MANY lines of codes again. “That’s so much work… how long did you put into this?”
“Heh… a lot. I can be more accurate if you want but…” Akita replied.
“No no no, it’s fine!” Bridget interrupted. “So what will this puppet be able to do then once it’s done?”
“Why, of course, it can walk, run, see, hear, talk. Basically, most of the things you and I can do. Only… not quite, which is why this is all so much work. If we see a cat, we recognize it as a cat. If the AI sees a cat, it won’t be able to recognize it as a cat until it has seen thousands of cats and even then, it’s still a little iffy,” Akita explained.
“I… huh, that sounds odd. Why wouldn’t it be able to recognize a cat?” Bridget asked.
“Because it is just very bad at pattern recognition. Everything needs to be added manually rather than it coming naturally,” Akita said.
Bridget stared at her lover blankly. “I guess I’m just not smart enough to get it all but wow. It’s like you’re making a whole new person here,” she said.
“Well… no, not really,” Akita said.
Bridget tilted her head. “But you said that it can see, hear, and talk like us?” she asked.
“But it doesn't feel like us. At least, not without a boatload more work and time. In the end, the puppet isn’t a real person. It’s just a whole bunch of lines of code,” Akita said.
Bridget nodded, still staring at the lines of code that did not make sense to her whatsoever. She placed a hand on her chin and appeared lost in thought for a moment. “Still, you must feel a sense of fondness for this AI...” she mused absentmindedly.
Akita tilted her head. “Well… yeah, I guess I do.”
Bridget actually started pacing around the room, deep in thought. She shook her head a few times, probably in debate with herself, and even sneaked a peek at Akita on occasion. All the while, Akita just looked at her in confusion. What could she possibly be thinking of? “May I… can I help in any way? To… somehow shorten that ‘boatload of work and time’?” she finally asked.
Akita narrowed her eyes now, filled with suspicion. “What are you getting at, my Terabyte?”
Bridget started blushing and placed her index fingers together nervously. “Well… I was thinking… since you’re kinda… you know… making a whole new person here… and we had that talk a while back about Estella… I just thought that maybe… uhm…” she stammered.
Only now did Akita understand what her lover was driving at. She gulped and stared at her while taking a step back. “That’s… But Bridge… I… I mean… This AI… as our child… it would be...” she stuttered. Was Bridget really suggesting this?
“Just… think about it! It was just a suggestion, of course… but yeah. I think that… it would be nice. And of course, I want to help out in any way that I can regardless of what you choose,” Bridget said with a smile.
Meanwhile, Akita was mentally shutting down from the overload of thoughts that flooded through her mind. She got flustered and blushed madly. This AI… as her child. The child she’d have with Bridget. She would be a mother. Was she even ready for something like that? Then again, she was the same age now as her own mother was when she gave birth to Akita. Still though, the idea of being a mother was quite out there for her. Not to mention the fact that she would be a mother to a puppet!
But no… the AI wouldn’t necessarily be a puppet. Not if she added in the extra work. Plus, what Bridget had said was indeed true. She had grown quite fond and attached to this project. Could it work? Could the AI be…
“I’ll… leave you to think about it. I should probably also think about it myself!” Bridget said while opening the door.
Akita gave her a meek smile while nodding. “Yeah… I’ll think about it,” she said.