Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

“Well, this is interesting,” Yuriko muttered, “and annoying.”

Across her vision, with the visor on her face, she had been looking around the immigration lobby. But after a couple of steps towards the exit, a rectangular box popped up before her eyes. Someone started talking, and there was a bit of music, too. All the sounds came from the edge of the visor, near the strap, and it was projected almost directly into her ears. It was way too loud. She snatched the visor off her head and cursed.

Gwendith and Heron, as well as Ryoko, Saki, and Devotee, all had the same reaction, each of them snatching the visor from their faces. The sound disappeared almost as soon as the devices was taken off. She put it back on, just a bit hesitant, but the same thing happened again, though this time she was able to listen and see what the box said.

“Gate Consortium provides the best transport services across all tower ground cities! You’ll be safe and will arrive at your destination, guaranteed! Gate Consortium~!” Except that part was sung with a catchy rhythm, and there was a video of a scantily clad young woman prancing around the Gate Spire.

Yuriko took off the visor again.

“I think it’s called an advertisement?” Gwendith muttered as she pulled out the smaller Autotab. “Officer Helspike did give us a checklist of things we should do in a hurry, and the top of the list is…security software? By the Ancestors, I know the words individually, but what does it all mean together?”

“Something to stop the advertisements from blocking vision while wearing Autovisors?” Yuriko posited.

“Or for people with automata eyes,” Heron grunted. “He said they’re always connected to REI-space, right? What’s that anyway? I heard what he said, but I can’t seem to understand it,” he muttered.

Yuriko shook her head and looked at the visor. Crystal screens were used in Imperial territory to hold information. They were connected to Gemhearts which also linked the territories together. Those screens were only used by the Legions and government administration, as far as she knew. “Back in Agaza Academy, did students get to use crystal screens much?”

“Huh, that’s skirting the point…” Gwendith muttered, then said, “But you’re right, crystal screens connect faster than messenger cranes, don’t they? You mean to tell me these things function like that, but everyone can use them?”

“Seems so,” Yuriko agreed. “And if it connects with REI-space, or through REI-space, does it not mean that anyone can connect to our devices anytime they want? Then security software must prevent that, right?”

“Hmm, well reasoned,” Gwendith muttered. “Then the list…” She poked at her Autotab and muttered, “Huh, there’s a list of names here—oh!”

“Hmm?” Yuriko looked over Gwendith’s shoulder and saw that the Autotab’s screen had changed to a different page from what originally appeared there. ‘Sanda REI-sec Corporation. You don’t let thieves into your house, don’t let them get to your Space too.’

“There’s a subscription fee here and it claims they’ll secure our REI-space-connected devices from intrusion,” Gwendith said. “It’s one thousand ACs per device per cycle. How long’s a cycle?”

 “Does it not say?” Yuriko muttered.

She abruptly realised that they had been standing in the middle of the corridor and that many travellers were skirting around them after giving her group scowls. Well, until they saw her, anyway, then their eyes were riveted to her face even as they walked away. Some even collided with a pillar, sign, or somebody else while they walked. Ah, she forgot to cover her face again, but, well, it didn’t really matter much, and if it bought them leniency…well.

“Let’s move over to that bench.” Yuriko pointed to the side. There were rows of benches next to potted plants or sculptures.

“Yes, let’s fill out the gaps in our basic knowledge before we get into trouble,” Gwendith added. “But let’s buy a subscription to this counter-intrusion software for our visors, at least. Or do we need it for all of our new devices?”

“That’s eighteen thousand ACs.” Yuriko pointed out. “And it's something we have to regularly pay, right? What, a thousand every week?”

“Aren’t a thousand ACs only equivalent to a silver mark?” Ryoko pointed out as she stepped closer to Yuriko and Gwendith. “Hmm, young mistress, it occurs to me that since we’re not actually holding on to the ACs and they’re tracked through REI-space, wouldn’t those who can intrude into it take our Autochredits? Is that not why Mister Helspike provided us with this list?”

“It would be poor showing for their Gate Consortium Bank if people’s ACs get stolen from their keeping,” Heron pointed out.

“That’s true, but perhaps we shouldn’t rely on our assumptions?” Ryoko said sweetly. “Are we not in an entirely new place, with an entirely new way of working things out? We don’t know, and, hmm, we really should not have given up all of our gold.”

“Who said we did?” Yuriko grinned. “I keep a small stash concealed within my safe pouch. And that one is covered entirely by my Anima. We have some reserves.”

“Oh! Good thinking mistress.”

“Ehehehe.”

In truth, protecting her safe pouch with her Anima was second nature. She’d just forgotten that she had coins there. She’d also replaced the normal pouch with one that was spatially expanded, so there was quite some room. Just like her hip satchel, her safe pouch had a necessities kit, as well as coins, her IDs, and some trinkets she’d taken a fancy to.

“Hmm, so we’ll subscribe to this service, shall we?” Gwendith fiddled with the Autotab for a bit, and Yuriko felt the one in her pocket vibrate. She took it out and it was a message from Gwendith’s device. “Just press on the blue-coloured words with the underline.”

Yuriko followed the directions. The subscribe button was prominently displayed in the middle of the screen and Yuriko simply pressed it. It took her to another page that had different choices but was centred on a three-unit subscription—uncannily the exact number that she had. The price was a bit lower at two seven fifty ACs though.

“This one?” she asked Gwendith, who looked over and nodded.

Yuriko pressed it, and the viewscreen shifted to another page, this one with a moving gear and an hourglass that was trickling down beside it. When the sand finished transferring down, the glass flipped over and started over. While she was staring at the animated image, Yuriko frowned when she sensed something. It was… minuscule and subtle, but there was a thread of something coming out from a part of the Autotab. Then it snapped out and connected to the visor and the wristwatch. It was transparent, but Yuriko could feel it easily now that she noticed, especially when it crossed into her Anima. The way the threads connected was reminiscent of the way her Mien connected things, but on a closer look, she realised that the threads emerged from and connected to a tiny crystal that just poked out of each device’s casing. The threads lasted for as long as it took for whatever it was that Sanda REI-sec Corporation did to secure their devices. It faded out a few minutes later, but now that Yuriko was aware of it, she could still see a glimmer of the thread. It was even thinner than her perception aura.

Once it was done, the page on the Autotab changed to a settings page and Yuriko spotted a list of what the software should immediately block, but it was so extensive that she knew it would take hours to parse through everything.

“We can fiddle with this after we find a place to stay,” Gwendith said firmly, “but the defaults seem good enough for now.”

Yuriko grinned at her lover. “You seem well versed in this.”

“Well, yeah. I’ve been reading all of the stuff Helspike sent,” Gwendith grinned.

“That quickly?” Yuriko gasped.

Gwendith grinned and reached up to pat Yuriko’s head. “Yes.”

She pouted and Gwendith giggled.

“Come on. I don’t think we should stay here too long. It’s got that same stuffy air as my father’s office back home,” Gwendith sniffed.

“Oh, but where are we going?” Yuriko asked curiously.

“Er…” Gwendith paused, then sat back down as she fiddled with her Autotab.

Yuriko held in a chuckle as she realised everyone else, except for Fluffington who’d settled down by her feet to nap, was fiddling with their devices. She couldn’t blame them either since those things were incredibly interesting. She would do the same, too, except for the fact that she got distracted by the transparent threads, which she suspected were connected to the REI space that Mathias and Officer Helspike mentioned. Come to think of it, she could feel those threads if she expanded her aura. Her full aura, not just her perceptive version. A full-blast aura was incredibly obvious, and in her case, almost blindingly bright, it wouldn’t be wise to draw too much attention for nothing more than a bit of scouting. But then again, if she just used her condensed aura…

Normally, her defences were held to her skin. Before she reached Transformation, her condensed aura stuck out by a few inches, but once her physique had reached a certain point, she was able to overlay her condensed defences into her body, yet they would still act as if they extended beyond. For the first few hundred inches anyway. If were hit with something more threatening, her aura would expand outwards, hence pushing the attack back while forming more layers to her defence. So by expanding her aura around her devices, she should be able to catch REI-space threads as they try to connect.

…so what did she buy Sando REIsec Corporation’s security software for?

Hmm, then again, she didn’t really know how these devices interacted with REI-space and the only thing she could stop was the threads connecting in the first place. But here in Dragon Fall City, it seemed that REI-space, and all of its features and benefits, were integral to daily life and probably a lot more.

So she sat on the bench and people watched. Her group was mostly made up of humans, with only Devotee and Fluffington as the clear outliers. But in this crowd, their appearance wasn’t all that unusual, strange as that seemed to her. Imperial Rumiga consisted mainly of humans and she only met other races after her Atavism Ritual and all the troubles she experienced.

Here, in the lobby of the city’s immigration level, or one of the levels anyway, the people walking past ran the gamut from races that were common in Bresia to those… significantly less common. Tall gangly humanoids that looked like stretched-out Sha’ledras, beastkin of all sizes and flavours, Durandir, and actual beasts that had automaton limbs grafted into their bodies that they were using to manipulate their own Autotabs. Maybe she should have gotten something for Fluffington after all, huh?

About a quarter of the travellers sported automata replacement limbs, but she supposed that was only because she couldn't, and wouldn’t, peer beneath their clothes. More than half of those she observed also had automata eyes, and she noticed that it was often paired with some metal at the base of their skulls.

She supposed the rest were real travellers who intend to return to their countries of origin and automata features wouldn’t be well received there? That was merely a guess, so she couldn’t be certain.

“I’ve got something,” Gwendith said. “I connected with an app that lists down possible residences for rent. Most of what I found is located in the so-called Green Zone, but that’s fine. Those at the Blue or Violet Zones cost upwards of a hundred thousand ACs a cycle to rent. Anyway, since the Adventurers’ Guild Hall is located in District One, northeast of here, I figured we should go live in proximity.” Gwendith paused, then muttered, “But the nearest apartment for rent is more than ten leagues away…in Tower 1D-L15-12 Floor 152 Apartment 1023. Ten thousand ACs rent per thirty-day cycle.” She tilted her head sideways. “Why not bill weekly like civilised people do?”

“It is odd,” Yuriko agreed. “So, how are we going to get there? Fifteen leagues away, right?”

“Well, directions from here tell us to go down to the 150th floor and take the monorail…”